Marketing via social media and other digital channels can appear to be a chaotic
environment of countless businesses vying to attract attention from potential buyers.
For businesses that are struggling to reach or engage with the right potential customer base, direct marketing can help you to reach your audience.
Direct marketing offers several advantages including cost-effectiveness, personalization, accessibility, and a high level of engagement.
The response rate for direct mail marketing is 4.4% on average.
In order to target only relevant prospects, you need a targeted marketing list.
What Is Direct Mail Marketing
Direct Mail Marketing is a strategy used by marketers to engage prospects and customers’ offline by sending printed mailers, dimensional packages, perishable items, corporate swag, or other physical items to them, which in turn has formed a valuable way to connect with prospects, leads, and clients in a meaningful way.
Why Direct Mail Is Making a Comeback
Direct mail marketing enjoys a Response Rate that is 30 times higher than the most powerful digital channel, email.
It also has the power to boost ROI by 20% as part of an integrated campaign.
The main argument for direct mail marketing has been that due to the explosion in digital marketing, so many people have found themselves almost overwhelmed with digital advertising messages such that there is the need for another approach of reaching out to the customers.
How To Acquire New Customers Using Direct Mail
According to a study by Edison nearly 75% of consumers complain of being overwhelmed by email advertising, with over 25% resorting the usage of ad-blocking software to augment their digital experience, according to Statista.
Direct Mail campaign also taps into the positive psychology and anticipation of receiving a physical gift.
It is also memorable and accentuates the feeling of the human touch and connectivity with people like the reception of a handwritten note or personalized item which is much more valuable than just receiving an indistinct or standardized corporate gift.
For young people especially they can receive thousands of emails but very few Direct Mail
pieces so the rationalization and feeling of human touch in these mails to these youngsters usually have a long-lasting impact.
Accenture Interactive for instance confirmed this in their research which shows that 75% of U.S. consumers like it when companies personalize messaging and offers to them which makes them feel more relevant.
Not many companies are engaging in Direct Mail Marketing campaigns these days which makes it a rarity, this causes it to gain prominence, stand out from the crowd as well as enjoy less competition.
Direct Mail offers limitless possibilities to the marketer to delight and entertain their customers and the recipients of these mails right from the sending platform or the approach adopted in sending the mail, the items delivered which can range from a variety of creatively-presented items: handwritten cards, innovative swag items, personalized gifts, sweets
& treats, eGift cards, experience tickets, and more.
The flexibility of Direct Mail makes it such that different age groups can be targeted with different contents, designs, packaging, gifts. The lifespan of Direct Mail is longer than that of an email or other digital marketing messages and channels.
The average lifespan of an email is just a few seconds, while direct mail’s average lifespan is 17 days. Despite the fact that emails can be forwarded or shared they eventually go to just one person meanwhile Direct Mails go to a household.
According to Reports from RetailWire, 88% of key purchase decisions for Retail, Financial and Automotive categories are discussed at home, first.
Buying Data
So, you have decided to buy marketing data, and you need accurate, comprehensive, and relevant data to ensure positive ROI.
Your targets should be only those businesses that may become
customers, and it needs to be accurate to avoid email bounces and other
deliverability issues.
Getting your data from a reliable source, that keeps its data fresh, accurate and highly deliverable is the key to reaching your target audience on time and for avoiding big money waste sending to targets who are not likely to make a purchase.
This is where segmenting your targeted list into groups based on different interests and demographics can help.
- Write targeted content. Adapt your message to resonate with your target group
- A/B test subject lines, content, CTAs (Call To Action) as much as possible (by performing drips, measuring, adjust – then rinse/repeat)
- Select corresponding KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to measure campaign results