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Direct Mail Marketing Overview
What is Direct Mail Marketing?
This explosion in digital marketing, however, has caused a correlated increase in digital overwhelm. Nearly three-quarters of consumers say they feel overwhelmed by email advertising according to a study by Edison, and over one-quarter report using ad-blocking software to augment their digital experience, according to Statista.
With an increased aversion to digital advertising, marketers find themselves in fierce competition for attention, trying to serve an increasingly weary (and wary) audience. Rising above the noise is becoming more difficult. In response to this, an increasing number of marketers are sending their message where it can be clearly received—namely, to the mailbox.
Why Direct Mail Marketing Works
Direct Mail is Memorable
Direct mail is perhaps most memorable for the human touch; a handwritten note or a personally-chosen item can create positive emotional connections, more so than a standardized corporate gift.
Direct Mail Has a Better Response Rate
Because of this tactile engagement, direct mail marketing enjoys a response rate 30x higher than the most powerful digital channel, email. It has the power to boost ROI by 20% as part of an integrated campaign.
There’s Less Competition with Direct Mail
Direct mail is also notable for its rarity—with far fewer companies committing budget to tactile marketing. For this reason, a direct mail marketing item stands out from the crowd.
Direct Mail Offers Many Ways to be Creative
Direct mail creates limitless possibilities to delight and entertain recipients. Through a Sending Platform, marketers can deliver a variety of creatively-presented items: handwritten cards, innovative swag items, personalized gifts, sweets & treats, eGift cards, experience tickets, and more.
Creating a Direct Mail Campaign
The results of direct mail marketing are compelling—it has the power to create direct connections with your most valuable contacts, with high response rates for relatively low investment. By implementing a few key tips and practices into your marketing strategy, you will be able to take full advantage of direct mail’s merits, and delight recipients with targeted, personalized offers that convert.
Learn how to create a direct mail campaign from start to finish here.
B2B Direct Mail Marketing
It also finds a home in the marketing mix for different kinds of account-based marketing (ABM), to make connections between marketing and sales, engage decision-makers, and tip the scales on sales conversions. Learn more about the ways in which direct mail marketing can impact your B2B marketing efforts every stage of the customer lifecycle.
Automating Direct Mail Marketing
The manual process requires: campaign planning and design; sourcing and/or designing gift items, packing materials, and printed collateral; management of warehousing, tracking, shipment, delivery, response, and follow up; and demonstrating ROI after the send. Automating the direct mail marketing process with a Sending Platform the best way to get the most out of these campaigns without dedicating manual labor and team hours to the process. Learn more about automated direct mail here.
Direct Mail Marketing Costs
These investments are often better made in the form of direct mail marketing automation, which can save as many as 40 hours for a campaign, while aggregating campaign data and results in a streamlined format. To learn more about budgeting for your direct mail marketing costs, read this article.
How to Measure Direct Mail ROI
While measuring ROI can seem tricky, using a Sending Platform to track response and calculate the overall success of your campaign can greatly improve your interaction with the campaign data. Check out our detailed guide for measuring direct mail ROI here.
See how companies generate over 200% ROI with the leading sending platform
Direct Mail Campaign Examples & Ideas
How to Personalize Direct Mail
Customers that are served with some level of personalization choose brands that personalize with more reliability, and invest more with them when they do. This personalization can take the form of a handwritten note with personalization that shows you’ve done your homework, and can continue with handsomely and carefully packaged items that resonate with your recipient on a personal level. While this type of personalization requires some sleuthing, the rewards in terms of customer acquisition and retention far outstrips the time invested. To learn more ways to nail direct mail personalization, click here.
What You Need for Successful Direct Mail
Defined Audience
Before you plan a successful campaign, you need to gain clarity on who exactly the campaign will target, and ensure that those recipients will be ready and motivated to respond to your offer. Not only does this critical first step to ensure that your campaign will enjoy great results, it saves time and money by focusing on specific customers for the right reasons.
Call to Action
For recipients to respond to your offer, they need to know exactly what is requested, and how to respond. For this reason, defining a strong and clear Call to Action (CTA) can greatly improve your overall campaign success. It should be simple to follow, with clear directives, timelines, and expected results.
Tested Approach
A well-defined ideal customer profile becomes even more powerful when you create tests to support your campaign. Sending to a small batch of test recipients is an effective way to extrapolate data about your overall send. Doing so also allows you to evaluate areas in the process that could be strengthened. Testing is especially important in larger cities, in which there is a larger variety of customers.
Your testing method should also incorporate tracking (for instance, coupon codes) that can identify data points from the responses received. Having access to data can improve your current and future sending campaigns for relatively little additional effort.
Sending Platform
The manual process of direct mail marketing can be almost entirely eliminated with the use of a Sending Platform. It automates the process, allowing teams to focus on their areas of excellence instead of manual sending, inventory, and tracking. A Sending Platform will also automatically track and report ROI so that future budgeting and campaign management efforts can improve organically.
Things to Avoid in Direct Mail
Running a Campaign Without a Goal
Sending without a clear view of your customer is can quickly depreciate the value of your campaign, as it relies on luck to garner responses from recipients. Without thoughtful targeting and consideration during the planning stages of your campaign, you may well be delivering some portion of your items to customers who can’t benefit from your offer or aren’t in a position to take action. For example, sending out gas cards as an incentive to try a new location is only effective if you know your recipients use cars to get around.
Forgetting to Follow Up
After shipments have been delivered and responses recognized, there is still work to be done to maximize the success of your campaign. A great follow-up process captures the responses that don’t come on their own, greatly improving the return on your marketing budget and time investment. Follow up can also communicate to recipients that their engagement is truly sought and valued. Be sure to have a follow-up plan in place before packages go out the door.
Forgetting to Track Packages and Tie to Campaign(s)
Shipping out your direct mail pieces is only one part of the equation. To get the most out of your sending campaigns, you must track the package deliveries, tie them back to specific campaigns, and be able to track responses. This is another area that can be greatly streamlined through the use of a Sending Platform.
Manually Packing Boxes
The time it takes to manually pack a direct mail marketing piece is considerable; this time is much better spent on other, revenue-generating activities. For this reason, using a Sending Platform to ship and track packages is a far more effective way of reaching recipients.
Make Direct Mail Marketing Work for You
If you’d like to learn more about the power of direct mail marketing, or you’re ready to explore the power of a Sending Platform, schedule your demo today.