After years of digital campaigns spurred by the advent of the internet, direct mail campaigns stand out among a sea of pop ads and email blasts. Offering customers something physical to hold may not seem like a game-changer, but it’s still one of the most effective ways to expand your reach and find new customers.
It may surprise you that direct mail is successful—so successful, in fact, that it’s touted as one of the best returns on investment in the marketing world, with a few caveats. The revelation surprised businesses too, until the results started to roll in: one company unveiled a case study that reported an increase in order volume of 140% with a 500% direct mail ROI, while another noted a 195% ROI. It’s clear at this point that direct mail is far from dead.
Direct Mail Is Back…But How?
What led to direct mail’s regeneration? In a few words, the human brain. That’s right, the oldest piece of biological technology known to mankind, the genesis for all other innovations, gets credit for inspiring this return to direct mail. A Canadian study, from a bunch of neuroscientists, no less, concluded that print media takes 21% less effort to retain than digital; in short, direct mail is more memorable than the thousands of digital ads we see on a day-to-day basis.
Another key finding was that the ratio between a consumer’s motivation to act (to buy, to subscribe, to do in some way) and their effort to remember the specifics of the ad (the brand or the business featured) was twice as high with print media. In other words, not only were people more likely to remember an ad they’d held in their hands, they were more likely to do something about whatever it advertised. The conclusion was that direct mail promotes action in a way some digital media does not.
How Can You Use Direct Mail?
One of the keys to reviving direct mail, however, is letting it work with the digital technology you’ve surely already embraced (hint- sitting down with a list of dead leads and a box of company postcards is not what we’re suggesting, here). Businesses trying to target a specific market, such as old customers who have gone dark and stopped making purchases, have found success integrating a direct mail campaign with at least one form of digital media.
Companies combined a direct mail campaign with a Twitter contest in one case mentioned previously, with a YouTube series in another, and the results were enough to prove what they’d suspected all along. Businesses aren’t choosing direct mail because it works; they’re choosing it because it works well. Very well. It works even better when you combine it with what you’re already doing in the digital marketplace.
Business to Business
Earlier, we mentioned that there’s no need to sit down with a mailing list and a pen and paper, and we’ll keep that promise. Besides being one of the best returns on your marketing dollar, direct mail campaigns are the quickest-growing B2B collaboration. marketing automation can integrate with your platform to fully streamline your new direct marketing campaign. No more hassle with the collection of data, keeping lists, or releasing new mailings. Marketing automation automates everything, requiring less labor on your part as well as less human error.
That’s right, it’s all about automation. Marketing automation not only takes care of making sure all your mail is USPS and UPS compliant, it also pre-sorts, barcodes, and delivers the mail to the facility for distribution for you. What’s the biggest plus? You get to avoid the post office paperwork.
Constant Innovations
Marketing automation isn’t stopping at dealing with the post office for you. In fact, they gear the latest tools toward helping you reconnect with clients you may think you’ve lost, or finding new ones. Before, getting the right message to the right person at the right time was something that was easier to accomplish with email or display ads. Now, Marketing automation can help you increase your success with the addition of direct mail automation. Some of the latest tools are:
- Workflow extensions. Marketing automation can integrate with your current software like HubSpot and SalesForce to personalize your direct mail campaign. You can transfer contact fields with an address and other information into marketing automation. If your campaign is a large one, it’s worth considering the sheer amount of time this will save you.
- Test mode. As with any marketing campaign, direct mail campaigns will cost you money so you had better be sure you have everything right before you pull the trigger. Being able to test the flow of the campaign before it happens is a great way to make sure your campaign will be successful.
- Proofing. Now you can look over your campaign with high-resolution PDFs. It’s always good to give one last once-over before the campaign starts.
List Management
Invalid addresses are a major problem for direct mail campaigns; think of the hassle and time-suck numerous failed email attempts used to cause you. Only, failed direct mailings have already cost you design time and production money. If you can’t correct or remove invalid mailing addresses, you’ll rack up the costs sending mail to addresses that won’t provide any ROI.
Spotting and correcting invalid addresses, especially on a long list, will cost you valuable time, as well. Don’t dig that list and pencil back out yet, though; marketing automation can detect invalid addresses and allow you to easily navigate to the problem address so you can fix it.
Digital marketing is a proven, effective tool that has the potential to reach a new customer base for your business; consider combining it with a direct mail campaign designed to reach new customers and give former customers a nudge back in your direction. Now, with marketing automation, direct mailing customers both new and old has become more cost-effective than ever. Couple that with the value of your precious time and the average ROI provided by direct mail and it’s clear why direct mail is not only back from the dead, it’s your digital campaign’s new BFF.
