Everyone knows how annoying it is to rush out to a special event, then waste time trying to find it because the directions are vague. In some cases, you just give up trying to find it and go somewhere else.
Unfortunately, this is exactly the frustration many people encounter when they try to respond to a direct mail offer! They sit down at the computer, go to the company’s website, but find a homepage with no mention of the special deal or new service — and no clues for where on the website they might find it. The web makes it very easy for them to go somewhere else, possibly the competition.
This disconnect often results from a lack of coordination between a company’s marketing program and the company’s web team or outside web maintenance service. The design or management of the website may be such that it’s difficult to get updates posted in a timely manner.
If this is the case at your company, you’re probably working on a long-range solution to it. In the interim, make sure that links to your direct mail campaign offers always appear on the homepage or in an easy-to-type web URL you can include in a direct mail piece.
In addition, make scheduling (and testing) the website updates a part of every direct mail campaign project. Yes, it’s conceivable that you may even need to postpone a mailing for a day or two because of technical delays at the web team’s end. But it’s worth it to be sure that the updated homepage is ready to turn the click-throughs your campaign generates into business.