With the rise of constantly improving technology, many people believe that direct mail is losing its relevance. This does not have to be true. Along with the digital age come a number of ways to continue to use direct mail as a marketing strategy.
Direct vs. Digital: Duking It Out
Direct mail and digital marketing are, in theory, hugely different and can often be highly contested. While direct mail has a greater response rate, email ends up producing higher ROI. With such mixed results, it turns out that there’s an alternate route to choosing one or the other. The key: integrate your strategies by combining direct mail and digital marketing, using one to inform the other and vice versa.
Bring Them To Your Website
The most effective direct mail is a tease. You don’t have to provide too much information—a simple blurb about what the recipient could do or how they could save money on a product that they need by visiting your website is a great way to hook them.
By teasing your audience with direct mail, you’re not providing them with a ton of information—or really, very much information at all. They’ll have to visit your website to find out more.
An added bonus of using a teaser campaign like this one: you’ll cut down on costs. These campaigns end up using much smaller paper and less ink, saving you printing costs and generating more traffic on your website or social media page—a win on all counts.
Direct Mail: New For Some
You might not know it, but the digital generation of millennials may not actually be that familiar with direct mail. At this point, it’s almost unheard of for people to prefer to communicate with each other via snail mail as opposed to email or even texting. As most mail becomes digital and more and more communication takes place over email, direct mail is actually much more likely to stand out.
This new generation is, as a result, much more likely to respond to your direct mail campaign by checking out the associated website. Targeting this demographic can be an extremely effective means of getting your direct mail campaign noticed.
Direct Mail Isn’t Dead—It’s Just Changing
Customers still like having mail that they can hold in their hands, which is why receiving direct mail about upcoming products and services is still an effective means of getting the word out. Another reason to use direct mail is to solicit donations. People who donate to charities or nonprofits are much more likely to give their gifts online, but are also far more likely to do so in response to direct mail rather than an email. Direct mail, unlike email, requires more than just a click of the mouse to get rid of. Overlooking direct mail as part of your overall marketing strategy may end up backfiring.
