Did you know, 27% of mail stays in the home for over 4 weeks? That means that your postcard or letter could be sitting in the home or office of your customers and prospects, and can be looked at time and time again.
Keep in mind too that 94% of mail is engaged with in some way.
Are you a company that’s deciding whether direct mail marketing is for you? Do you still believe digital marketing is the only way to go?
In this article, we explore various aspects of direct mail marketing, and how it compares to digital marketing. Think digital marketing is your only choice?
Think again. Read on to discover why many are choosing this traditional and effective method for their marketing needs.
Why Direct Mail?
Did you know that Facebook overestimated their key video metrics for 2 years? They lead us to believe that video view figures on their platform were much higher than they really were. Turns out, their metrics only looked at the average time for the first 3 seconds (so it recorded any auto plays as views when users were simply scrolling their feeds).
Along with this, there’s over-saturation in the digital marketing world. With digital marketing there is uncertainty as to how effective it is, many are turning to direct mail.
Of course, digital marketing is still an effective form of marketing overall, but it’s best to use multiple marketing channels, including direct mail.
What Is Direct Mail?
Direct mail is a type of marketing where a physical item goes through the mail to a home or business. Some common types of direct mail can include flyers, brochures, letters, postcards, packages. etc.
Choosing Your Audience
Before determining your traditional marketing strategies, it’s important to be aware of your audience. Your audience isn’t going to be everyone from the age of 6-65.
What is their age, gender, income level, education level, do they own a home, etc? Build a picture of your ideal customer in your head as you answer these questions and then get that profile down on paper to share with the rest of your team.
Once you know your audience, you can purchase a data list that meets your criteria. It’s important that you use a defined list that best reflects your target audience if you want to see an increase in your ROI (return on investment).
Will Digital Marketing Replace Direct Mail Marketing?
The simple answer is no. Take a look at your goals, location, and budget when determining your marketing plan. The most successful plans usually combine both digital and direct methods instead of deciding on one and channels are determined by how an ideal customer wants to interact with a business.
Many are still choosing to advertise using out-of-home media (signs and billboards) which also falls under the ‘traditional marketing’ umbrella. People still like to receive mail, and that can include your flyers and letters. Direct mail is also a great way to face less competition since some companies are only using digital marketing.
Is Direct Mail More Expensive?
No. Many think that digital marketing will cost less because there are no postal or printing charges. This is wrong because, with digital marketing, there’s still a delivery cost.
When you use digital marketing, there will still be platform and algorithm changes. This can lead to your ROI being affected. Keep in mind that digital marketing ads can be pulled at any time.
Whereas with direct mail, you don’t have to worry about the post office not delivering your mail. Using a direct mail company (like ourselves!) will give you access to bulk postage discounts too.
Why Direct Mail Still Works in 2020
While social media is popular, depending on your audience, they might not be online as much as you might think. They might not check their email as much as you like, or emails can send up in a spam folder.
When you send a piece of direct mail in the post, your potential customer will receive your mail in their hands and can then decide whether it’s for them or not. It’s a great way to get past those email platforms that wrongly throw your email into spam.
It doesn’t matter if you send a flyer, postcard or letter in an envelope, your potential customer will still take a look at the flyer. Remeber that stat we shared at the begining, 94% of mail is engaged with in some way. It creates more interaction and memories than receiving an email that they’re not interested in and end up instantly deleting.
Also, if they don’t throw away their mail immediately, they might wind up relooking at it or sharing it with a family member or friend. It can be there in the home, ready and waiting on their coffee table or countertop should they wish to take a look again.
Better Targeting
It’s still possible to target your audience with direct mail, and not just digital marketing. As well as sending mail addressed to a bought list you can also explore door drop marketing or Royal Mail’s Partially Addressed Mail too. Both offer various options which allow you to target based on demographics and certain interests.
You can still take measures to track how your direct mail campaign is doing. For example, you can create a unique landing page just for those who look at your direct mail.
You can then track how many people click on and engage with the page. You can use a unique tracking device whether that’s a website URL or phone number, the choice is yours.
How to Incorporate Direct Mail Into Your Marketing Strategy
Direct mail campaigns can be added to your current marketing strategy. It’s a plus to add another form of marketing to the mix, that means reaching more of your audience.
A good marketer will use a combination of SEO (search engine optimisation), paid search campaigns, Instagram ads, Facebook ads, and direct mail.
Exploring Why You Should Still Use Direct Mail Marketing
Now that you’ve learned how you can incorporate direct mail marketing into your current strategy, you should be more informed to decide if it’s the right fit for you.
Are you ready to come up with a marketing plan that will work for you, and increase your ROI? Are you not sure how to come up with a marketing plan that incorprates direct mail?
Or, maybe you’re too busy running your business to stop and research.
Contact us today, and we’ll show you how direct mail can increase your ROI and help you build this in to your marketing plans.
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