Orange County Direct Mail Marketing – Best Practices
Orange County direct mail marketing is the best tool to reach the scattered mass of Orange County (the OC). In the absence of one mega city or defined urban center in the OC, people here live in different pockets of the county. It may be good news for communities and the OC, but is not so for marketing companies, as it increases the cost of reaching these customers through mass media, and even if they succeed in reaching everyone, they cannot deliver the message properly. It is at this point that Orange County direct mail marketing comes for rescue of firms with commercial interest in the OC.
What makes the OC unique?
- Not only people of the OC live in different suburban parts of the county or in down town areas Anaheim, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, Irvin, Orange, and Santa Ana, etc., but they are also culturally diverse; from Asian to American African to White to Hispanic to Native Indians, all live in this county.
- The county has three dominant age groups and each one them has different preferences. If 27% of the OC natives are under 18 then around 21 percent people here are between 45 and 64, and around 33% falls in the age group of 25 to 44.
- The socio-economic profile of each group is different, and even people in one socio-economic group does not have same preferences as they are culturally different.
- Even the average household income of one community in the OC significantly differs from another community in the OC. If Villa Park community has average household income of $203,091 then Laguna Woods has an average household income of $31,212, which is almost seven times lesser than the average household income in Villa Park. These are the two extremes and in-between lie many different income brackets.
- That is why marketers prefer use direct mail to communicate product features and benefits to their target group.
Orange Direct mail marketing best practices
As the paradigm for the OC direct marketing has been established, let’s talk about some of the best practices, which will guide you in your own marketing effort.
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Database development: Develop a database of people living in different communities in the OC. A well-developed database is critical to direct marketing success. Your database should contain at least the following. You can include as many relevant information as you can find:
- Name of individual and/or organization
- Mailing address with zip code
- Telephone numbers (mobile and landline)
- Demographic details like age, sex, education, marital status, occupation, monthly income, race, ethnicity, and lifestyle, etc.
- Stage in family life cycle
- Household income
- Credit history and rating
- Mailing list: Purchase or buy a list. This is common practice, and without a list you cannot go anywhere. Ideally, you should develop your own list, but until you have one continue with the rented one.
- Message creation: The primary goal of your message should be to convince the reader to take action. It should aim to solve a pressing problem that your reader has. You should not create a “one size fit all” kind of message. Customize your message for different communities. Keep the recipient of the mail in mind while crafting a message.
- Delivery: Give some buffer time for your audience to act, but it should not be too long or else the effect will wane. If you want them to make a purchase on 15th of a month then they should get the message by 10th, at max by 12th. Neither before that, nor after that.
Orange County direct mail marketing differs from mass media marking primarily in the way it communicates to customers. Orange County direct advertising talks directly to customers in the language they understand, unlike mass media marketing that adopts “one size fit all” strategy.
The Secret of Direct Mail Success with Tom Adams