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Direct Mail Advertising is a great option to grow your restaurant business. Unlike mass media, direct mail business enables you to put your advertising money exactly where your potential clients live. You can aim geographically by neighborhood or demographically by age, income, ethnicity, etc., or a combination of both.

Direct mail advertising also allows you to regulate your budget, by the size of your mailings (how many pieces) and the frequency of your mailings.

There are many other advantages, here are just a few:

1. It’s your own, between you and your prospect

2. It’s not as public as different media, your competitors won’t have access to your coupons and special offers as they do in newspapers and other media.

3. It’s bounded to one mail piece per household, which means special proposals will not be abused, for instance, by prospects buying more than one newspaper and clipping multiple coupons

4. Response is simple to track

5. You may compare results by neighborhoods and define your best market area.

Concerning this, you might be asking yourself, if direct mail business is so efficient, why isn’t every restaurant in town doing it?

Indeed, direct mail may play a big role in developing your restaurant business, however, it is going to take certain effort when you send out cards and, of course a budget. It’s not just a matter of putting your menu or a few coupons together and mailing them out. A beneficial campaign is a bit more complicated than that. To gain certain insight into the process, Isuggest reading blogs and online articles such as this one, which contains ideas and tips on design, mailing lists, direct mail concepts etc.

Of course, everyone desires to hit a home run the first time at bat, but prepared for some hits and misses. Each mailing is essential and gives an opportunity for you to know more about your market area. Results will vary, even if no one responds, that is still a result (evidently not what you were hoping for) and the result, that no one or few people responded, can be used to make a course correction.

So, if you have decided to begin a direct mail campaign, begin with a mailing that is large enough to establish a base line of results, as a rule about 2000 to 3000 pieces. Don’t be tempted to economize money on printing by ordering large quantities to be used in future mailings. What if your suggestions fall flat and don’t work.

Direct mail advertising works. It may work for you. But, unless you are prepared to stick with it, you may be wasting your time and money. It is going to take some trial and mistake. The great news is, that over time, with experience, results will become predictable. That’s when you can expand your strains, and direct mail advertising won’t be costing you money, it will make you money.