Direct mail is a perfect way to not only leverage the power of targeted mailing to your advantage for your restaurant, but it can also help improve your response rate and your ultimate ROI at the exact same time. It is not, however, a silver bullet. Case in point: there are a few key restaurant direct mail fails that you will do well to avoid at all costs moving forward.
Mistake #1: The Fast Expiration Date
On the one hand, the logic is somewhat sound: if you want to create a sense of urgency for your restaurant, you want to have an offer that inspires people to act sooner rather than later. That might include sending out a coupon with a very precise expiration date, hopefully enticing people to treat themselves to a night out at your restaurant sooner than they otherwise may have.
However, if you only give people a week to use that coupon, there’s a fairly good chance it’s actually going to expire before they ever have a chance to think about using it. Generally speaking, we always recommend an expiration date of 90 days out from the day you put your plastic postcards or other collateral in the mail. This is especially important because these materials already have a longer shelf-life than most. Likewise, when you partner with a company like DynamiCard, our experts can work with you to help coordinate the process to make sure your campaign materials hit precisely when you need them to – especially for those essential seasonal and holiday campaigns.
Mistake #2: Too Much Fine Print, Not Enough Meat
Sending your prospects a $20 coupon is a great way to increase your response rate AND your ROI – unless they have to jump through too many hoops to actually redeem that coupon, that is.
Never forget that these types of stipulations only get in the way of someone visiting your restaurant. Period. End of story. In fact, if your offer comes off as too cold and cynical, it may actually HARM your reputation, not help it. For the best results, never send an offer with too many strings attached – it really is only a recipe for disaster.
If you’d like to find out more about how to make sure you’re NOT falling into these and similar types of restaurant direct mail fails, or if you’d just like to learn about how we can help take your marketing strategy and your targeted mailing efforts as far as they can go, please don’t delay – contact us today.
