Direct Mail

How To Increase Membership With Direct Mail

How can you increase membership?

Many organizations are facing a big membership problem. Their members are growing older and as they pass away membership rosters are decreasing. Now is the time to act to stop the dwindling numbers. Innovation is the key and many organizations have turned away from direct mail to focus on digital marketing channels. This is a mistake. Direct mail can help you increase your membership. Do not stop your digital marketing but enhance it by adding direct mail as an additional channel. Let’s look at some ideas.

Steps to increase membership:

1. List:

To create a good targeted mail list you need to know information about your current members. Focus not on ages, but on other factors such as where they live, what they do for fun, what magazines they read, what activities they enjoy and so on. This will help you build a profile for who you want to be on your prospect list. The better targeted the list, the better response you are going to get. Also include a list of people who have visited but not become members.

2. Creative:

Here is where you need to have some fun. Sticking with a corporate/business theme will not grab attention. You need images and designs that pop off the page. Your choice of fonts, colors, images, texture and layout are all very important. Sit down with your team and plan out how to get attention. Think outside of the box. Direct mail is very tactile, how can you exploit that to your advantage?

3. Message:

This needs to be variable depending on the person you are targeting. Break your list into types of people so that you can highlight benefits that are important to them. You can also provide them with a card of upcoming events they would be interested in. This gives them the ability to keep the information handy for the future. Remember, the most important part of the message is that it is relevant to the person you sent it to.

Your direct mail needs a clear call to action in order to generate response. Make sure to provide a way for your prospective members to purchase online. Younger groups of people prefer to buy online, since this is a group you will be targeting you need to be ready for them. You should consider making a special membership offer to entice first time members. Make sure to have it as a limited time offer so they respond quickly. Before you ask, yes millennials like getting direct mail and they do respond to it.

There are some really fun a creative things you can do with direct mail now that can help you increase membership. Check out pop up mailers, dimensional mail, video mailers, augmented reality, endless folds and so many more. Don’t create old school direct mail, create interactive and engaging mail. Contact us today. We are glad to help!