Direct mail is not dead: why you should use direct mail in your direct marketing strategy
In our digital world, the importance of marketing in physical form is sometimes overlooked. However, strategies like direct mail marketing can be an incredibly powerful way of generating awareness and sales for businesses. So, what are some of the main benefits of using direct mail in your marketing strategy?
Involvement
Unlike digital communications, direct mail allows the receiver to physically hold and touch what they have in front of them. This in itself makes it harder to ignore, and there are also direct mail involvement techniques that can be used to add even more interest. Direct mail allows you to play with things like fold-outs, different textures and lots more – you can get fun with it.
Personalising with names and other information also encourages involvement, but none of this matters without an effective copy. The copywriting needs to be instantly engaging, allowing the reader to understand the message quickly. Every element should encourage immediate action – inclusion of call to actions helps to achieve this. You should also preempt readers’ questions and concerns, addressing them in the copy.
The power of personalisation
The use of specific personal information in direct mail helps to target exact recipients, and the receiver will feel that your message is relevant to them. Things like name, title, address and even aspects like purchase history are good data points to include. For example, say you’ve jet washed someone’s patio six months ago and you know it’s around the time where they want this service again. Targeting them with personalised mail including their purchase history will get their attention, and paired with quality copy and design you have a recipe for success.
Builds awareness and response
Compared to other outbound lead generation methods, direct mail reigns in terms of credibility. Reducing risk by offering a strong guarantee along with testimonials helps to increase credibility, and inclusion of pURLs allows accurate and specific tracking of responses in real time. Having a solid direct mail strategy and implementation simultaneously improves company awareness and sells the product for direct marketing to be most impactful, it has to be complemented by digital practices. Sending an email to prepare recipients for the mail they are about to receive and a follow up email is important for increasing the response rate. Integrating digital and non-digital practices is key to achieving a positive response when it comes to direct marketing.
