Some businesses now dedicate all marketing spend and resources to digital. Others still run exclusively offline campaigns, or ad-hoc direct mailers in isolation to other channels.
Direct mail and digital marketing do not have to be an either-or proposition. In fact, these days it is perfectly possible to treat direct mail like a digital channel because of how it can be cost-efficiently tailored, printed, measured, and automated.
Coordinating mail and email
A mailer can prove the ideal starting point to capture your target market’s attention. It is never a good idea to start with a ‘hard-sell’ therefore using mail to signpost content, or provide relevant information which adds value, can help you build rapport with potential customers. Achieve that, then it becomes much easier to follow-up using digital channels such as email.
Alternatively, if you’ve nurtured an engaged audience via email, you can efficiently use mail to follow-up and covert warm leads too. Or, taking a different strategy, simply use mail to follow up with those you are struggling to reach or engage with via email.
Whatever your sequence, throughout the campaign, the key is not to present everything you wish to tell your customer in one go. Keep them on a journey, or your opportunities to follow-up will soon run dry.
Key tip: Keep your recipient’s attention and intrigue by honing in on one specific point (eg a solution to a pain-point or insight on a key issue) per communication, then ensure you have a clear CTA which drives the recipient onto the next step in their buying journey.
Retargeting
Retargeting is an effective tactic for digital marketers, and there are many ways you can do this with print. It’s particularly well-suited for reaching out to individuals who might be considering a high-value action.
For example, we enabled warehousing and workspace solutions provider Spaceway, to follow-up with website prospects who used their online pricing calculator. Utilising the data submitted during the calculation, we set up an automated process whereby each potential customer would receive a hyper-personalised 16 page direct mailer the day after their enquiry.
Key tip: Don’t just think about the personalised wording when re-targeting using mailers. As with digital re-targeting why not use relevant imagery and even specific product images that reflect each individual’s journey to date.
Working with landing pages
Landing pages form a key part of direct marketing campaigns – they provide relevant content and information to specific customer journeys. This approach is commonly used for email marketing, but perhaps more important for mail campaigns.
Without sophisticated tracking techniques it can be hard to appreciate the additional web traffic mail can give you. Not only does creating bespoke landing pages help you to track the impact of non-digital campaigns, but they also give you the opportunity to further tailor your message to those entering your website.
In recent years (and even during the pandemic), as the use of online technology has increased, so has the challenge of standing out and keeping people engaged. As more businesses also turn to PPC and SEO, driving traffic to your site gets harder too. The cost of Pay Per Click (PPC) using Google has significantly increased for some industries, with Wordstream reporting that the average Cost Per Click (CPC) using PPC was $2.69 (£2.27) in 2022. And that’s for one click through to a URL which may or may not be from a potential enquiry. For the cost of 10 clicks at £22.70, you could be sending 45 mail packs to targeted customers.*
Key tip: Remember, it usually requires a compelling reason to move prospects from direct mail to digital channels, therefore your landing pages could additionally cover specific offers or even a competition.
Time for a RETHINK?
With our complete direct marketing service, we’ll help you to reach and engage with specific audiences through carefully tailored direct marketing campaigns. Let us know if you have any questions.
*Calculated by the DMA
