Direct Mail Effectiveness: What a Recent Forrester Report Found

Many marketers may question the effectiveness of direct mail marketing, but studies show that it’s able to capture buyers’ attention in a way that digital marketing simply cannot.

Recently, Forrester put together an in-depth report looking at the effectiveness of direct mail and how it amplifies and complements digital touchpoints along your buyer’s journey.

They looked to Sendoso as experts in the direct mail industry for data and insights to help compile their report. They also interviewed our customers at Uberflip to learn about their experience with direct mail effectiveness and see how it’s helped them connect with their prospects and customers.

This report is an amazing resource filled with cutting-edge data and strategies for effective direct mail campaigns. The report, titled Direct Mail Captures The Attention Of Buyers Overwhelmed By Digital Tactics, talks about the psychology of gifting and how to leverage direct mail in tandem with your digital touchpoints. You can access the full report for free courtesy of your friendly neighborhood marketers at Sendoso, or simply read our summary below!

Direct Mail Effectiveness: Does it really work?

The short answer is yes. Research has shown that direct mail has many benefits in the revenue  cycle. The Forrester report presented many reasons why direct mail is effective, but we’re going to take a closer look at fourteen of them:

• Capture the attention of digital-first buyers. Digital natives are not typically familiar with direct mail. It’s a new channel that can better catch their attention that the numerous digital channels they’re exposed to every day.
• Create an emotional connection. Prospects feel a positive emotional connection to you when you send them a gift. When they receive a gift, they are more likely to reciprocate, because the theory of reciprocity plays a big role in gift-giving.
• Meet modern buyer expectations. Our CEO and co-founder, Kris Rudeegraap, told Forrester that package delivery has become a staple of modern life. “I call it the ‘Amazon effect,’” Kris said. “We all expect to get packages now.”
• Improve ABM outreach. Account-based marketing and direct mail go hand-in-hand. With ABM, you can hyper-personalize gifts and get better response rates. Engagio saw an 85% confirm rate on meetings when using direct mail.
• Integrate into existing solutions and workflows. With a Sending Platform, ending direct mail is as easy as pressing a button in your CRM. Direct mail solutions have integrations with CRM, marketing automation, and account-based marketing platforms, as well as sales enablement solutions.
• Create digital breadcrumbs for measurement and attribution. With digital direct mail solutions, you can easily track engagement and performance data. By tracking all of the activity throughout the buying process, you can see direct mail’s positive impact first hand.
• Allow marketers to focus on the strategic. Modern solutions for sending direct mail and gifts remove the  stress of handling direct mail on your own so that you can focus on what’s important. Now, you can focus your efforts on building targeted audiences and developing personalized messaging.
• Enable recipients to choose their own adventures. Many direct mail campaigns allow the recipient to choose their gift. For example, you can send them a code to an online marketplace where they can select a gift of their choosing.
• Secure more meetings. Gifts can be used as a token of appreciation for considering or accepting a meeting. Email your meeting attendees a coffee eGift card prior to your meeting as a reminder to show up. Another strategy is to have a gift waiting for them until after they book a meeting. For example, you could send them a locked wooden box with a bottle of wine inside. The only way they can open the box is to book a meeting with you and then you can send them the key!
• Drive increased event attendance. By sending Uber gift cards, you can encourage more people to come to your events. They appreciate you taking the effort to get them there and more people will show up to your event. Forrester gave a great example of the effectiveness of direct mail with Invoca. According to the Forrester report, Invoca used “targeted direct mail to surpass its scheduled meeting goal by 276% and to deliver a 28-to-1 return on pipeline-to-target account spend at Adobe Summit.”
• Revive dormant opportunities. Uberflip said they’ve seen positive results from focusing direct mail on prospects that have gone cold as opposed to deals that are progressing well. You can send a pair of branded socks with a cute note saying, “Don’t get cold feet! Sign the deal.”
• Shorten the sales cycle. Customers have found that following up a meeting with a direct mail piece can get the next meeting booked quickly and shorten the sales cycle.
• Celebrate important business and life events. You can continue to nurture your relationships by sending direct mail to celebrate important milestones. For example, we love sending a branded baby onesie when a customer welcomes a new addition to their family. Our customers love to know that we’re human too and this helps us to strengthen our relationship with them.
• Influence the influencers. B2B marketers are recently learning how to engage with industry leaders who are influencing their customers. By using direct mail, marketers can stand out to create connections and conversations with these influencers outside of social media channels.

Today, there is more data than ever demonstrating direct mail effectiveness. The research that the folks at Forrester have presented in this report is some of the most recent insight we have into the success of the direct mail industry.

A special thanks to Forrester for putting together this awesome report and for interviewing us as industry leaders. We’re excited to see direct mail continue to grow as a key strategy for B2B marketing and sales teams!

As mentioned above, we’re giving you access to this report for FREE. Simply click here or on the image below to request your complimentary copy.