These days, it can be easy to get distracted by all of the flashy, digital options available for attracting a consumer’s attention. When there’s a screen in every hand, every hand is a potential billboard.
But despite all the Internet spots and in-app digital ads, there’s one classic and effective way of reaching your customer base that never goes out of style—direct mail marketing.
Today’s digital marketing is overcrowded and saturated. People’s inboxes are surging with influxes of emails and they are constantly unsubscribing from email lists. Direct mail, on the other hand, is a popular and productive way for businesses of all types to meet their advertising needs. Here are the top 10 reasons why.
Direct mail marketing refers to any physical advertising material that is sent directly to consumers through the mail. This includes things like:
Even when compared to digital marketing methods that deliver your ads to your potential customers’ screens, a direct mail piece can make a strong impact. Here are 10 unique benefits of direct mail marketing you can take advantage of as a marketer.
Although 21st-century technologies offer businesses more thrilling and innovative options than ever for reaching consumers, sometimes the tried and true method is the best. And the fact is, direct mail marketing is familiar to consumers. Often, this familiarity means consumers are more likely to trust ads that arrive in their mailbox than those that appear elsewhere.
With direct mail marketing, marketers don't have to worry about:
Moreover, if you’re trying to reach demographics that are less Internet-savvy, like older customers, direct mail can be an effective and efficient way of doing so.
Even as other advertising methods grow in both popularity and ubiquity, direct mail advertising remains a proven way of advertising effectively.
It all comes down to response rate. If you know how to write direct mail copy and how to run a direct mail campaign, you can level up with other online channels and begin converting prospective customers into actual consumers. Direct mail allows you to reach fresh audiences in new ways with very high conversion rates compared to online channels.
Direct mail’s successful response rates can be attributed to the many options it offers for personalization and targeting. So, be sure to learn how to measure direct mail effectiveness so you can optimize your campaigns. Nowadays, more consumer data is available than ever, which represents a huge boon to businesses looking to tailor their ads to specific groups.
Consumer data is useful because it allows you to anticipate with greater accuracy how individual consumers might interact with your business and spend their money. It includes information like:
This allows you to target your ads more specifically, saving you time, money, and potentially increasing your sales. And when you couple the availability of consumer data with modern-day design and printing technology that lets you customize your advertisements automatically, you’re better able to reach consumers where they are in a way that feels personal to them.
You can also utilize lookalike modeling if you already have active customers to model off of. All you need is a seed list, or existing customer data, and your ideal segment size. From there, you can use the data to target the most viable prospects for your business.
Speaking of personalization—designing ads that speak to your consumers is important, but expressing your business’s unique ethos in your advertising is also crucial. The versatility offered by direct mail marketing materials is another reason it’s such a smart marketing option.
Online advertising options like email, pop-ups, and banner ads severely inhibit your ability to personalize and modify your ads according to your business’s goals and challenges, limiting your ads solely to image and text. With direct mail marketing, you have more options for:
An ad that’s designed creatively sparks the consumer's interest. It also presents you with an opportunity to show consumers who you are and heightened ways to show them what you have to offer.
It can be easy to overlook the cost-effective nature of direct mail marketing. It requires physical materials and comes with other up-front expenses like printing and postage fees. Digital advertising eliminates those factors, which can seem less expensive.
But as a marketer, you know that what you pay upfront is only one thing to consider when it comes to how much a product or service truly costs. When you factor in the greater response rate of direct mail marketing, it’s easy to see how it can take your dollar further than digital ad campaigns.
Direct Mail marketing can seem intimidating if it’s a new channel for your business, but it doesn’t have to be. Solutions are available now that make it as easy as any online channel. The cost-effective quality of direct mail is bolstered by the relative simplicity of planning, launching, and executing a successful direct mail marketing campaign nowadays. When it comes to direct mail marketing, a little can go a long way to getting your business the positive results you’re after.
Compared to other marketing efforts, launching a direct mail marketing campaign with a direct mail solution, such as Poplar, is a breeze—even as it offers many of the same (and often better) perks as other channels. However, its simplicity doesn’t sacrifice results. Direct mail campaigns save you both time and money so that you can reach your targeted consumers and make an impact.
Going physical doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice insight into how your advertising is performing. Even though it’s operating offline, direct mail marketing is still an easily trackable method of advertising.
Direct mail marketing lends itself to a variety of tracking methods, such as:
The ease offered by direct mail marketing campaigns doesn’t stop with your business. It can actually be a lot easier than other methods for your customers as well.
The barrage of ads and other clutter on the Internet can confuse consumers and distract them from information about your business. Direct mail marketing requires only that you know how to check your mailbox. Additionally, it allows recipients to save their mailer and use it when they are ready to make a purchase. On social media, if you scroll past an ad, you most likely won’t remember it after a few minutes, whereas with a mailer sitting on your counter, you see it every day until you finally make a purchase.
Combining the direct mail campaign with your digital marketing strategy can be a great way to boost the success of both. Luckily, direct mail campaigns work with—not against—whatever digital marketing strategy your company might use.
What’s more, studies show that direct mail marketing campaigns might even strengthen your digital campaigns. For instance:
At the end of the day, one of the biggest factors contributing to the success of direct mail marketing campaigns is their tangibility. Even in the Internet age, people like receiving mail—indeed, these days, a physical mailer can seem like a novelty.
Studies suggest that an overwhelming number of North American consumers prefer receiving physical mail directly from brands. And more than half of those surveyed said they actually enjoy receiving mail from companies.
Looking for an easy way to launch a successful direct mail marketing campaign? Want to connect with experts in the field who can guide you through every step of the process?
At Poplar, we’re committed to helping businesses of all sizes launch, sustain, and reap the advantages of direct mail marketing campaigns. Our platform can enable your brand to create direct mail campaigns that are customizable, personal, and successful in minutes, all from our website. You can even integrate your direct mail campaign with your digital efforts so that you’re always on top of your advertising.
From automatic sends and programmatic campaigns to one-time mailers, Poplar is here for businesses like yours. Get started with our direct mail solutions today.
Sources:
1. Association of National Advertisers. ANA/DMA 2018 Response Rate Report: Performance and Cost Metrics Across Direct Media. https://www.ana.net/miccontent/show/id/rr-2018-ana-dma-respose-rate
2. Epsilon.com. 6 Direct Mail Stats That Can’t Be Ignored. https://www.epsilon.com/us/insights/blog/region/6-direct-mail-stats-that-cant-be-ignored
