Everyone’s looking for new ways to do marketing, and in the realm of direct mail that takes the form of communicating with customers in ways that benefit both groups—not just the businesses. This manifests in innovative ways to give the campaign value instead of just focusing on sales, and makes a direct mail strategy an integral part of inbound marketing.
Here are some of the ways companies are using innovation in their direct mail:
Loyalty Programs
Consumers are more likely to respond to a direct mail campaign that gives them added value than one that simply sells them a product. The philosophy behind these programs is fairly basic: repeat customers get rewarded for coming back and the businesses increase their sales. When it’s integrated with your direct mail strategy, however, it also enables the brand to collect valuable information about the consumers as well as tracking how effective the individual mailings are.
Social Responsibility Programs
Most people love to help the less fortunate, but don’t have spare funds with which to contribute on any sizeable scale. By combining direct mail with a socially responsible cause, for example by contributing a portion of sales generated from the campaign to a local charity, your company can enjoy all the benefits of:
- Increased brand awareness
- Data collection
- Measurable response
- Improved sales
At the same time, you might get publicity for your efforts and your customers get the satisfaction of knowing they have helped out.
Incentive Offers
Using incentive offers in your direct mail strategy depends on the type of product and service you sell, because it doesn’t work in every case. Incentives might be based on a percentage of sales, new referrals and new clients. If each new customer who responds to your mailing uses a promo code that nets him or her a hefty discount on the first sale, you’ll likely get a lot more responses that you would without the incentive. And once the customer responds, you’re able to create a profile, track purchases, and send additional mailings to them.
Competition Entries
This is one of the oldest tricks in the book but it still works. By integrating your direct mail campaign with a competition, you can find out how many people read it and gather information about the recipient. Combining a competition entry with each sale, however, gives even more mileage. You’ll be able to track the value of the sales and apply purchase history across data such as demographic location, giving you intelligence you simply won’t get without it.
Get creative with your direct mail strategy and you’ll see just how powerful the medium is for generating sales.
