As much as 90 percent of direct mail gets opened by recipients. That places direct mail among the top marketing tools worth your attention.
For many brands who have embraced digital marketing, sending brochures, catalogs, and other types of direct mail assets can’t seem to deliver consistent results.
Before you overlook the value of a direct mail marketing strategy, look through these six compelling reasons for using direct mail.
What’s Direct Mail?
Direct mail is a kind of marketing approach where you deliver a physical printed promotional asset to target recipients using mail service.
You can choose to use the United States Postal Service or any other courier service you prefer when delivering direct mail to a recipient’s address.
There are several types of direct mail assets you can leverage, and these include:
- Brochures
- Catalogs
- Newsletters
- Fliers
- Coupon envelopes
- Postcards
The nature of direct mail is such that it’s the opposite of permission-based marketing. During the direct mail vs email conversation, proponents of the latter will point out that direct mail’s mostly uninvited.
However, direct mail still sees success because it can land in the recipient’s hands when they need the service or product being marketed.
Thus, even though it’s not permission-based, you can still do the groundwork to segment recipients on your mailing list and improve the conversion rate.
When you’re segmenting the recipients, you look at the relevant demographic data to give you an idea of who could benefit from your service or product.
Age, gender, income level, and employment nature are some of the factors that guide you to your preferred target audience.
Why the Direct Mail Marketing Strategy Still Works
Does direct mail still have any benefits for brands? That’s the question that many marketers grapple with. Even in a technology-infused context, there are still some salient benefits that the direct marketing model can offer.
1. Direct Mail Complements Digital Marketing Well
It may be shocking to many who bifurcate the two services to learn that direct mail and digital marketing can play nice.
The fact is that you can never rely on one channel when deploying your marketing. Instead, you blend several channels to drive a cohesive strategy.
Direct mail is one such channel that can work to support your digital marketing efforts.
For example, you can deliver a postcard to recipients’ addresses with copy introducing a campaign. Additionally, you can add a QR code for the recipient to scan that takes them to your digital offering.
If you manage the details wisely, your direct mail marketing can enhance the personal nature of your digital marketing.
Consequently, fewer people will turn down your approach since your marketing won’t feel like a mass targeted one.
2. You Can Track the Results From Direct Mail
There is no tool or strategy to automatically track direct mail results as compared to email marketing.
If, for example, a recipient of your direct mail ends up visiting your site, you may categorize them as a website lead. In reality, that’s a direct marketing lead.
With that said, there are easy ways you can make direct mail trackable.
Do you want a recipient to call you after they get your direct mail? Use a unique number dedicated to direct mail leads to keep track of the campaign’s return.
In like manner, you can develop a unique landing page that you link to your direct mail only. As visitors land on this page, you will know they are coming from your direct mail campaign.
3. There Is Less Competition
The moment digital marketing caught fire, many brands and businesses abandoned direct marketing for the former.
For example, in 2016, the total number of direct mail deliveries reduced by 2 percent as compared to the previous year.
So why are here fewer marketers now using direct mail than before? Is it because it doesn’t work?
Fewer marketers have the patience for direct marketing, as it’s easier to get immediate results using digital marketing.
Therefore, when you deliver your direct marketing, it now has higher chances of standing out since the field has fewer players.
Compared to how hard it is to rank on Google, that is a hidden advantage. The online space may be chock full of messages but mailboxes aren’t
4. Direct Mail Is Tangible
Any piece of direct mail asset you deliver is physical, and that’s of benefit to you.
Unlike email, when you send a piece of direct mail, it remains in the recipient’s vicinity. As such, it acts as a reminder of your messaging, which can trigger an action later on.
For example, let’s say you send out coupons to a recipient. They may register the offer and place the voucher on the counter. When they plan to go out a few days later, your physical coupon will remind them of the discount they can receive, prompting them to take action.
In direct contrast, unless a subscriber acts on an email when they’ll receive it, chances that they recall your messaging down the road are low.
5. Tap the Millennial Market
It must sound scandalous that you can get significant direct marketing mileage with Millenials, right?
It turns out that 36 percent of people under the age of 30 do look forward to receiving physical mail. The built-in emotional response is what makes incoming mail attractive to this group.
For a demographic segment poised to spend $1.4 trillion by 2020, direct mail offers an effective way to snap up a slice of the revenue cake.
Tie your direct marketing to the digital world of which millennials are native, and you will meaningfully differentiate your campaign.
Direct Marketing Still Has the Power to Deliver
Digital marketing is all the rage nowadays, and that has led brands and organizations to abandon direct mail. However, a direct mail marketing strategy still has unique advantages to deliver results. Use direct mail in tandem with digital marketing to optimize your campaign to the highest possible level.
Are you looking for more insights on how to gain market share for your business? Check out more of our content for actionable ideas.