10 Reasons Why Direct Mail Marketing Works
1. It’s Proactive
Unlike pay-per-click or online marketing, direct mail is proactive. Online marketing requires the customer to seek you or information about your products or services. Customers may find your website, but they will also find your competitors. E-mail is also a good proactive approach, but with junk mail filters, can spam regulations, and crowded e-mail inboxes, you can get overlooked.
Direct mail won’t get caught in a spam filter. Direct mail educates and entices the consumer about products or services they haven’t considered. Direct mail can serve as a reminder, to make an appointment, a service call for maintenance or to reorder a product. With a properly planned direct mail marketing plan and a well-designed mail piece, you will stand out even in a stuffed mailbox. Demand a prospects’ attention, and entice them to act.
2. It’s Timely
A typical direct mail campaign can be planned, printed, and mailed in a matter of days. Delivery can vary from a few days to a week. Direct mail can provide a message or promotion to fill a lull in the sales cycle or in response to changing market conditions.
3. It’s Targeted
Very few modes of marketing allow you to specifically target customers most likely to be receptive to your message or likely to buy your products. Targeting a particular customer based on gender, income, location, age, political affiliation, or interest in hobbies can maximize your marketing dollars.
Direct mail saves money by not mailing to unlikely customers and maximizes effectiveness by targeting likely consumers. Some customers choose to model their best customers and build a list that best reflects that model. The more targeted the message and the list, the better the response.
4. It’s Personalized
When a name is cleverly integrated into a mail piece, it will result in increased awareness resulting in increase sales. Personalization techniques can include working the recipient’s name into a headline, or calling attention to products he or she has previously purchased.
Personalization is not just “your name here.” A mail piece can also be personalized in terms of relevant and variable data.
Integrating the online and offline world can significantly heighten overall response. Many savvy marketers include a personal URL (PURL) or QR code printed within the piece.
If you do not customize your direct mail pieces, you are missing an opportunity to keep your “junk mail” out of the trash and into the hands of an interested party.
5. It’s Creative and Versatile
Not all direct mail marketing promotions are created equal. Depending on your budget, you can create a simple postcard, a folded self mailer or an eye-catching shape. There are few limits to size, shape or color when it comes to direct mail.
6. It’s Affordable
Direct mail is one of the most affordable modes of marketing available. It is scalable and targetable, meaning that you can reach as few or as many receptive customers as you would like. Your mail piece can be budget conscious. You will find that a smaller audience, targeted properly with an effective mail piece can yield big returns. This is especially true if you mail to the same demographic several times.
7. It’s Visible
With pay-per-click ads, magazines, billboards, you are never certain to get a look by your intended audience. With direct mail advertising, you can be confident that interested prospects will see your message because they have to pull it from the mailbox (even if that means throwing it away). It will still promote name recognition and your brand.
8. It’s Tactile
Direct mail delivers a tactile sensation that online or social media cannot. You can hold the advertisement in your hands. The physical nature of direct mail compels the recipient to pay attention. If a piece is designed properly, it will grab their interest and persuade them to take action. Only with direct mail can the recipient leave it on their desk to investigate later, slip it in their purse or bag for future reference, or attach it to the refrigerator as a reminder.
9. It’s Measurable
One of the best reasons to use direct mail is that you can establish baseline or develop a breakpoint and measure results. Direct mail has proven methods for testing, measurement, and analytics.
For direct mail pieces that seek to drive online traffic, the use of PURL’s and QR codes are a valuable tool in determining who is responding. You can use that response to identify the respondent and to analyze the target demographics you are seeking to connect.
10. It’s Effective
Direct mail works. Customers actively respond to direct mail and are more receptive than you may think. A recent DMSNews/Pitney Bowes study found that close to 40% of consumers surveyed have tried a new business for the first time because of information received via direct mail. It also found that nearly 70% renewed a relationship with a business after a period of time because they received a direct mailing or promotional item.
Direct mail has a very good return on investment. According to statistics compiled by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), every $1 spent on direct marketing advertising resulted in $11.63 in direct marketing driven sales, on average. On the other hand, every $1 spent on non-direct marketing advertising resulted in average sales of $5.24.
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