Direct Mail Research

When beginning my experience with direct mail I did my homework. For countless hours I studied and researched all I could in regard to the merits and/or limitations of marketing by direct mail. After weeks of investigative effort to unlock the keys behind the secrets of marketing by mail I came up empty.

Nearly all of the information I was able to locate concerning direct mail marketing was always the same: 1.) Targeted Mailing Lists Are Critical and 2.) You Must Test And Retest Your Direct Mail Pieces In Order To Determine Your Most Effective Response Rates. That was about the extent of “professional” insight I was able to find through weeks of research.

Prior to deciding whether I would embark on a direct mail campaign, I valiantly tried to uncover research touching upon the response rates for those arrested and targeted by a mailed informational piece. More to the point; what percentage of people who would receive my mailer are likely to call me in the best of circumstances.

What I found discouraged me and almost derailed my efforts to utilize what I have come to believe is the most effective bang for the buck marketing available for lawyers seeking dui clients.

Unlike what I had knew to be true in my state, I kept reading that a five percent response rate for direct mail was indicative of a successful direct mail campaign. While I understand that for lawyers in my field of law a five percent client acquisition rate from direct mail alone can be quite a lucrative undertaking, to me it was not nearly enough.

Over time I would come to learn the underpinnings behind this flawed research disseminated too often by marketing firms with no clue as to what it actually takes to succeed in the unique world of lawyer direct mail marketing. More significantly, I was not derailed in my marketing pursuits by relying upon research that did not take into account that those to whom I was marketing not only were those who needed my services, but needed my services now.

Why Direct Mail Research Different For Lawyers.

The inevitable flaws behind the professed research of those not experienced in the practice of law is that nearly all available direct mail research takes into account all businesses and trades as if they are the same. It assumes that both, 1.) your direct mail piece will be the only one received in circumstances where one does not immediately need the services of an attorney, and 2.) that your mailing is indiscriminately sent to people who may need the services of an attorney in the future, but not now.

Unlike other businesses utilizing direct mail in the hope that recurrent exposure will generate business in the event that their services are needed in the future, lawyer direct mail goes to people who need the services of an attorney right away. When people are arrested the challenge is therefore not to convince someone that they may need your service, (if they have money they already know they need a lawyer), but rather how to differentiate oneself from the inevitable onslaught of unprofessional mailers competing with your mailing for the person’s attention.

Defense lawyers have the unique benefit of a targeted mailing list for specific people needing your services immediately. There is simply no other profession more ably positioned to benefit from the workings of direct mail. Once this distinction has been made when assessing the merits of direct mail response rates when applied to defense lawyers, the five percent response rate to measure the relative success of such a campaign goes out the window.

You now know better. Unlike other trades sending out indiscriminate mailings to people with no competing mailers in their mailbox, defense attorneys do not need to learn how to use direct mail to educate consumers that there services may be needed sometime in the future.  The beauty of direct mail for attorneys is that you are sending needed information to specific people who need your services now.

Therefore, when it comes to direct mail marketing what lawyers need is simple; the actual direct mail piece that establishes you as the authority on legal defense to the person who needs your services now.