Why Tangible Marketing Still Delivers Big Results
The digital world is constantly widening its horizons; however, even in an digitally centered world, traditional methods of marketing like direct mail and catalogs are still valid and working exceptionally well. They provide even better results when paired with modern tools for targeting, like direct mail marketing lists.
Emails being sent are flooding inboxes without ever being opened and digital ads are most often ignored or blocked. However, it is still only physical mail that makes it to people, and registers in their minds. Be you a retail brand, sending a catalog of the season or an insurance agent making use of postcards to better connect with prospects, it is hard to disagree on the multiple benefits of direct mail.
In the following paragraphs, we will discuss direct mail advantages, highlight the role of catalogs play, and also cover the manner in which personalized data lists improve campaign results.
1. Tangible and Memorable
Tangibility or the physical nature comes as one of the great benefits of direct mail. While digital ads can disappear with a swipe, scroll or click, a postcard or catalog would be present in someone’s household for days, weeks and months. A postcard or an advertising magnet can hang on fridge doors as a reminder of the value offer. This aids your businesses’ brand recall and makes your message more easily remembered.
It is highly probable that people would read and remember printed media, compared digital content on a webpage or mobile screen. More importantly, if you have ensured a well-designed mail piece that not only contains a good value off but also presents it in an attractive manner.
Pro Tip: Make use of high-quality paper, professional imagery, and a clean and clear format. This will have a significantly higher impact in terms of your campaign, more importantly in catalogs where the visual experience holds supreme importance.
2. Highly Targeted with Direct Mail Marketing Lists
The days of ‘spray and pray’ mailing are gone and have been replaced by high expectation for well executed campaigns, from a well-designed messaging to industry’s best direct mail marketing lists. These lists allow the marketers and business owners to reach specific, qualified audiences based on, among other things:
- Location
- Income level
- Purchase behavior
- Home ownership
- Business type or industry
Quality lists help your message reach people who are likely to respond and even convert to purchase. This holds true whether you’re in the home remodeling business and are targeting homeowners and movers and also if you’re providing enterprise services and targeting business owners.
For example: Through postcard marketing for real estate agents, one can easily target the property owners in specific neighborhoods, filter by home value, or put focus on recently listed homes. This specific targeting not only reduces your campaign costs but also increases your ROI.
3. Less Competition, More Attention
Whereas digital advertising platforms are crowded with top-tier competing brands, on the other hand, an average consumer comparatively receives little to no physical mail, especially when it comes to personally crafted promotional material from local businesses or national brands. From this we can infer that the competition on mailbox placement is far too little.
When only a few marketing pieces arrive to consumers, there are greater chances for your catalog to stand out. In fact, research shows that when comparing email and physical mail, the open rate and message consumption are both higher for the physical medium.
Direct mail advantages are just not inclusive of higher visibility but also have a much higher shelf life. When people receive your catalog or postcard, they may leave it on the table, fridge, or desk for days or weeks after receiving it, this helps in reinforcing your brand over the time.
4. Better Engagement and Response Rates
Direct mail marketing continues to have a higher response generation than other digital channels and this is no secret. In fact, according to the American Data & Marketing Association (DMA), on average, direct mail response rate is 4.4% when talking about house lists and 2.9% when considering prospect lists. These rates are much higher than email, paid search, and social media.
Combining with accurate direct mail marketing lists will allow for your results to improve, as your message reach the right audience at the right time thus making your content relevant to them.
Catalogs, in particular, can be drivers for high-value purchases, more so when you are focusing on repeat buyers or showcasing seasonal promotions. Multiple retailers have reported an increase in the website traffic or the size of order after they mailed out catalogues.
5. Versatility Across Industries
Be it retail, healthcare, home services, dining or business offering catering to families and kids, when it comes to direct mail, it holds the versatility to adapt to almost any industry.
Take for example:
- A boutique clothing brand might send out a seasonal catalog featuring new arrivals.
- A dentist’s office may mail appointment reminders and new patient offers.
- A pet hospital or veterinary office providing services that are relevant to new homeowners who moved in to the area and likely have a provider who is now far from their new home and thus looking for a new local provider in their neighborhood.
Direct mail can support branding, lead generation, retention and upselling across the variety of touchpoints by employing the right message, format, and mainly, the right list; a list of quality data, targeted audience and timely fashioned for that audience to act.
6. Easily Measurable
With the evolving technology, modern direct mail campaigns have become more accurately and timely trackable than ever before. This has been enabled using:
- IMB (Intelligent Mail Barcode) or unique promo codes
- Personalized URLs (PURLs)
- QR codes linked to landing pages
- Call tracking numbers
By employing one or more of these means you can directly attribute the response to every single mail piece. Having this degree of insight offers you the opportunity to test, optimize and in turn execute highly efficient and profitable campaigns.
Using such targeting capabilities and with quality direct mail marketing lists, you are empowered to reach the right people in a better way, moreover, you are also able to gather data about what they want and improve your ideal customer profile.
7. Trust and Credibility
Compared with cold emails or digital ads, physical mail is much more trustworthy. This stems from the fact that a physical piece and its origination are harder to fake and less probable to be perceived as spam or phishing. When done right, physical mail also feels more professional.
When we consider a beautifully printed catalog, or a personalized postcard, it can establish your brand as a trustworthy and high-quality one. Much more likely to seem so when it is compared to the overwhelming chaos or online marketing. A printed catalog or a personalized postcard can establish your brand as reliable and high-quality—especially when compared to the overwhelming noise of online marketing.
Direct mail advantages are also inclusive of the unique emotional and psychological edge which is very difficult to be imitated via digital channels.
Conclusion: Direct Mail and Catalogs Still Deliver
While digital marketing has earned its dignified place, direct mail and catalogs continue to prove their value in the marketing mix. They offer tangible impact, superior targeting through direct mail marketing lists, and higher engagement with less competition.
Whether you’re a small business looking to stand out in your local area, or a larger company seeking to boost your direct response rates, the benefits of direct mail are well worth exploring.
This is even more true in the case of postcard marketing for verticals targeting consumers, where personalization and timing are key—direct mail remains an unbeatable choice.
Ready to Launch Your Direct Mail Campaign?
Get started with Homeowners Marketing Services’ high-quality, segmented direct mail marketing list to ensure your message lands in the right hands. Whether you’re mailing catalogs, postcards, or newsletters, great targeting is the first step to great results.