While many of us enjoy peanut butter on crackers, others opt for fruit-flavored jams on hot buttered toast; yet nothing compares to the combination of these two scrumptious spreadables in the form of the classic PB&J. One without the other is fine, but they are just better together!
Such is the case of direct mail and digital marketing. They are effective in their own rights; but when utilized together, your advertising tastebuds are tantalized! You simply can’t have one without the other in today’s fast-paced, high-tech business world if you want to yield the best results. Digital integration is the future of direct mail.
Why Mail
Whether you want to attract new customers or reconnect with existing customers, direct mail is an effective way to start. “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds” is the motto that has long been associated with the American postal worker. Thanks to USPS, your advertising message is guaranteed to reach mailboxes; all you have to do is complete the proper planning, creativity, and production.
Why Digital
According to USPS, 60% of marketing respondents said combining digital and direct mail increased ROI. Stereotypes still exist that millennials are digital addicts who only engage online, while seniors shy away from digital, but this thinking is flawed. 62% of millennials said they had visited a store in the past month based on information received in the mail. The 65+ age segment is the largest group to be signed up with Informed Delivery, receiving email previews and interactive campaigns of their mail. Companies must learn how to create campaigns that resonate with all demographics.
How to Track Success
Once you’ve decided on your target audience and created your masterpiece mailpiece, you just send it out and hope for the best, right? Wrong! You need to know if your mailing is hitting its goal so setting solid KPIs and tracking response is imperative. Call tracking phone numbers, QR codes, social media icons, and personalized URLs are just a few ways that your mailpiece can track customer response. The Informed Delivery feature from USPS also helps track your campaigns, giving customers access to complementary digital elements. 77% of Informed Delivery notifications are opened daily. This is just another ingenious way of combining the physical and the digital, so you can reach customers in multiple places.
Who Uses Direct Mail
The top five industries who use direct mail campaigns most often are Financial, Automotive, Travel, Retail, and Political. However, every type of industry, including non-profit, can wield the power of this marketing strategy. 72% of financial services utilize postcards for conveying a message quickly. 66% of auto marketers use newsletters, providing even more space to tell stories. The majority of travel marketers and retailers also use postcards, allowing recipients to identify vacation locations and coupons quickly. Political campaigns take advantage of special types of direct mail such as Business Reply Cards and Share Mail for increased awareness.
Why DirectMail2.0
Which was invented first? Peanut butter or jelly? Recipes for fruit preserves can be found in the oldest cookbook to survive from antiquity: De Re Coquinaria (The Art of Cooking), published in the late fourth or early fifth century. Peanut butter wasn’t created until 1880, when Dr. Ambrose Straub began crushing peanuts into a high-protein paste for his patients who couldn’t chew. Once these two delicacies debuted, it still wasn’t until 1901 when the first recipe for a PB&J appeared in the Boston Cooking School Magazine.
The USPS traces its roots to 1775 when Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first postmaster general. The term digital marketing wasn’t used until the 1990s. While mail and digital were born in very different times, much like peanut butter and jelly, their partnership is perfection.
Why reach customers solely in their mailbox, when you can also reach them on Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Gmail, and more? Imagine how much time and money you’d save if you could employ an automated system to follow-up with your customers. Now you can with DirectMail2.0.
The future of direct mail is here. Omni-channel marketing is what’s working right now and will continue to grow. Set your company apart by utilizing the suite of DirectMail2.0 technologies that lead to improved results, increased conversions, and more revenue. Contact sales@dm20.com.
