17th November, 2011
Welcome to Week 1 of the zero2illo Promotional Mailer Challenge. Without further ado, let’s get started…
Planning your mailer
Anyone that participated in the original zero2illo 12 Week Challenge will remember the initial task we set - it was a vital part of that challenge and it’s just as important here too…
One of the foundations of a successful promotional mailer needs to be set in place long before you start creating it. It’s your promotional mailer marketing plan.
If the plan is to send out as many mailers as possible to as many people as possible, then you may have a lucky hit and generate work from it, but you’re more likely to increase your chances (and keep your costs to a minimum or at least get a better return on your investment - of time and money) if you do some planning first…
What do you want to Illustrate?
Sounds simple, but really think about it - what kind of work do you want to be hired to do? What subject matter, in what medium and who for? It’s important that the type of work you want to be hired to do is reflected in the mailer that you send out to potential clients (this also applies to your portfolio website too, but we’ll save that for another challenge).
Who do you want to work for?
An equally important reason to spend the time working out the direction that you’d like your career to go in 2012 is that you don’t want to throw money away printing & posting thousands of promo mailers out using a scatter gun approach hoping something will stick.
You’re far more likely to get yourself on the radar of Art Directors and Publishers by sending out a well crafted, tailored promo mailer/package to a well researched, smaller and highly targeted list of prospective clients you’d really like to work with.
So, put the time in now, do the research and craft a highly targeted contacts list consisting of contacts name, title, email address, postal address and direct telephone number (where possible).
What is your strategy?
Do you have a plan for your promotional activity? How does this mailer fit into it? Is this mailer going to be a one time deal or do you have a structured calendar of promotional activity planned throughout 2012?
Most marketing research determines that people need to be “touched” by your marketing message more than once - in some cases, for some products/services up to 7 times, before they’ll actually take any notice and take action.
While an art director may fall in love with your work having seen just a single mailer, they may not have a suitable project for you to work on then & there. It doesn’t hurt to remind them who you are and what type of work you do on a more regular basis - they may just have a timely project land on their desk for which your work would be a great fit.
So if you’re planning to put together an amazing promo package for just 3-4 of your dream clients, make sure you have a plan to follow up with them.
What if for some reason your package never ended up on the desk of the right person and was overlooked? What if they thought you’d be perfect for them but they didn’t have a suitable project for you at that time and forgot about you (these people are swamped with mailers in their physical and virtual inbox every single day).
This week’s tasks:
- Take time to really think about the direction you’d like your career to go in 2012 - decide what type of work you want to be creating, in what medium and who for (x magazine, x publisher etc?)
- Start building your targeted mailing list of contacts - research online, in magazines and make phone calls if you have to, to make sure you have the right person to send your mailer to.
- Work out a realistic schedule of promotional activity for 2012 (bi-monthly, quarterly, every six months) and stick to it. Work back from the date each new mailer is due to be sent out and note on your calendar steps you need to take to make this deadline (create the artwork, print lead times etc).
Happy planning!