Direct-Mail Tips for Invitations

With the right marketing strategy, direct-mail invitations can fill the house fast when you're hosting a business event. Seminar seats, conference chairs and trade show booths are routinely filled with the persuasive power of direct-mail invitations. To help you do the same for your event, here are four direct-mail tips for invitations.

Compile the perfect list

The better your mailing list, the better your direct-mail invitation marketing campaign will perform. A quality mailing list is one that is filled with individuals or businesses that fit into a tightly defined target audience. Invest the time and energy - no matter how tedious - into refining the perfect mailing list and your sub-niche benefits for this target audience so that you can yield the excellent benefits of a great return.

Send multiple invitations

All too often event organizers send one direct-mail invitation for a given event and call it a day. This is fine if you fill every seat in the house with one mailing, but highly unlikely, especially for new events that have not yet been established as must-attend industry highlights. To increase attendance, you have to remind your invitees with continued mailings and by upping the ante with each subsequent mailing. Play on the time-limited factor and all the great benefits of attending. Include testimonials from respected industry gurus about how great your event is. Two or three mailings in different formats, from greeting cards to postcards, should be sufficient. If not, you're doing something wrong with your list or your message. Include a free bonus incentive with your last direct-mail invitation to sway the fence-sitters.

Hire a copywriter

You either have a graphic designer or are a graphic designer yourself, but you don't want to sell yourself short by writing your own copy (unless, of course, you are a copywriter). If you're not a copywriter, then you would do well to hire one. A copywriter is more than just someone who can make words sound good; a copywriter is a specialist in making words motivate action from customers. In the long run, a copywriter represents a small investment compared to the huge dividends you'll be afforded by hiring a pro to work with your designer on your direct-mail invitations.

Print quality invitations

One of the most important things you have to do when marketing an event is establish credibility. The quality of your invitation printing plays a major role in how your invitees perceive your event and your company. Premium paper stocks, glossy and matte finishes, UV coatings, full-color printing, foil stamps, die cuts, and other attributes help establish credibility because they appear as though they are sent from a company that has the means to print expensive materials - even though premium invitation printing really isn't expensive. One last word: You can avoid middleman shipping fees by having your printing company mail your direct-mail invitations out for you. This is an efficient way to save time and money, which will ultimately help increase your bottom line.