How to use direct mail to change your customer experience
“Buy now!”
“Only 2 hours left on our biggest sale of the season!”
“Don’t miss out!”
Your customers are constantly bombarded with urgent offers and solicitations online. Is it any wonder they’ve developed mental filters to block out the relentless tsunami of unwanted messaging?
Unfortunately, this makes it hard for your legitimate messages to break through and capture your audience’s attention.
What’s the solution? Transform the experience they have with your brand by adding direct mail to the mix.
Not just digital but physical.
Not just ephemeral bits and bites dancing across their screens but something tangible that they can hold in their hands and experience in a unique way.
Direct mail makes an impact. It has staying power. And it engages their senses like no other type of marketing.
Bonus: It can also set the stage for a digital approach by telling a fuller story that will stay with your audience longer while your digital engagement gets to work.
The challenge
To move a prospect to buy your product, donate to your cause or register for your school, they first need to trust your brand. That takes time – and consistent messaging that’s focused on their needs and the challenges they face.
Prospects need 11 or more touches from your brand before they make a buying decision. Those contacts can take any form: print and online ads, blog posts, social media mentions, direct mail pieces and telephone calls.
Most organizations rely too heavily on digital marketing because it’s easy and inexpensive to produce and deploy. But therein lies its weakness: digital messages are incredibly easy to delete or ignore!
The solution
Adding direct mail to your marketing campaigns is an excellent way to cut through the clutter of online messages and provide your audience with a more tangible, tactile experience with your brand.
When used as part of an integrated marketing campaign, direct mail can help you build awareness and trust – and position your brand in their minds, faster. A colorful, well-designed direct mail piece can also help you tell a richer, more engaging and more memorable story.
Direct mail strategies
Here are four ways you can employ direct mail to increase the effectiveness of your digital campaigns:
Leadoff with direct mail: One very effective way to employ direct mail is at the beginning of a marketing campaign. Send it first to create a strong first impression. Then follow up with digital content that contains consistent creative and messaging. From our experience, the increase in engagement can be very significant!
According to the Direct Marketing Association, combining direct mail and digital media in a single campaign lifts response rates by 118% and conversion rates by 28%. In addition, eight out of ten marketing managers report better results when they add direct mail to their digital marketing mix, says Capco Research.
Direct mail is also a potent way to reach and influence key prospects who may be consistently ignoring your digital messages.
Use direct mail to drive your audience online to engage with you: Consider enhancing your direct mail piece with a link to an online video or a landing page, where they can download a special report or other type of premium content. A contest or giveaway is also a popular way to boost engagement with your brand.
Integrating a QR code into your direct mail piece gives recipients an easy and immediate way to interact with your brand.
Use retargeting to reinforce your brand message: Use direct mail to drive prospects to your website and set up a retargeting campaign to display ads to them. This strategy exposes them to your brand more often, increasing the odds that they will engage with you.
Ditch the hard sell: Sales offers don’t usually perform well in direct mail pieces. People tend to ignore them as being too pushy. Instead, focus on using direct mail pieces at the top of the sales funnel (when you’re trying to build awareness for your product, service or other offer) and in the middle (when your prospects are actively seeking solutions to a challenge they face).
In other words, use direct mail to inform and educate your audience instead of trying to immediately sell to them.
Closing thoughts
Insanity is doing the same thing you’ve always done and expecting different results.
If you’re only utilizing digital marketing campaigns to sell your offers and the results have been disappointing, then it’s time to change your approach. Consider adding direct mail to your campaigns. It can invigorate them with new energy and excitement – and can help you achieve the results you seek.
Contact us today to discuss your direct mail needs.