With eCommerce almost phasing out traditional retail, it would seem almost counter-intuitive focusing your marketing efforts on direct mail. Email marketing is seemingly a more up-to-date and effective way of marketing your products or services. While email marketing is indeed effective and convenient, don’t be too quick to rule out direct mail marketing.
The talk in many spheres of business is that direct mail marketing is dead. However, that’s not true about snail mail. Direct mail marketing is alive and kicking.
In fact, according to Marketing Charts, 78% of 600 business professionals in a recent survey avowed that mail marketing is either effective or very effective as a marketing strategy. Next time you want to dismiss mail marketing, keep this little statistic in mind.
Despite the benefits of mail marketing, not many businesses are willing to incorporate them into their marketing campaigns. In this post, we’ll be highlighting a few advantages of snail mail marketing and why you should consider it for your business.
Benefits of Direct Mail Marketing
Direct mail marketing confers a ton of benefits for businesses large and small. Don’t believe us? Well, here are a few benefits of direct mail marketing and postcard advertising.
1. A Lot of People Love Mail
It’s no secret; Many people love waking up to some mail in their mailbox. You can’t compare that with the “meh” feeling you get when you receive an email. It’s nothing compared to the feeling when you open a sealed envelope to receive a postcard from someone you hold dear.
It’s probably because no one hardly receives any mail nowadays; thus, getting mail comes with a bit of excitement. Whatever reason it is, the fact is that everyone loves getting mail.
2. Enhances Brand Trust
Open most apps or website today, and you’ll see several ads pop up all at once. At times, it’s even difficult to discern one brand from another. Direct mail, on the other hand, has a somewhat personal feel to it.
With so many ads saturating the internet, it’s sort of hard for customers to know which brand to trust. Sometimes fraudsters, or subpar companies, may hide under the cloak of pretty internet ads. However, direct mail speaks volumes about your brand’s credibility and dedication to customer satisfaction.
For the greatest effect, make sure you’re consistent with your colors, logos, and tone. That way, you can build rapport and familiarity with your target audience.
3. It Saves You Money
Though it's hard to believe, direct mail is one of the cheapest marketing techniques you could adopt. Plus, it has incredible ROI compared to other marketing channels.
What’s more, direct mail is a marketing strategy that actually drives customer action. In fact, about 66 percent of people have bought a product because of direct mail.
PPC ads and other ATL ads might promote brand awareness, but it doesn’t generate much customer action. If you do the math, you’ll see that direct mail marketing makes more economic sense than most other marketing techniques.
4. People Actually Open and Read Mail
When you receive a bunch of mail in your mailbox, your first instinct won’t be to throw it in the trash. If you’re like any other person, you’ll at least scan your mail before discarding it. That means even if your customers don’t read through your mail, they’ll at least scan it.
Compare that to a marketing email that goes straight to the trash for most people. If you want people to actually see your ads, then give mail marketing a whirl. However, make sure you have something that can actually capture the recipient’s attention.
5. You Can Highly Target Direct Mail
With all the consumer data available today, direct mail is one way you can leverage it to your advantage. Besides addresses, you can extend further to your customers’ names, profession, and even family. You can use such information to personalize your marketing mails.
The highly targeted capability of direct mails generates familiarity and builds trust with your target audience. This is especially true if you become consistent with your mails, but do your best not to overdo it.
6. Easier to Setup and execute
Establishing a direct mail marketing strategy is an easy and uncomplicated process. That’s because you don’t require much technical skill to write and send emails to a designated address. Plus, you don’t have to be familiar with all the internet mumbo-jumbo associated with online advertising.
In fact, all you need is a freelance designer and one or two writers, and you’re good to go. However, you’ll need to learn about how the postal system works, but you can always outsource for mailing services. If you want to track and target your mail is when you can call in the experts.
Getting a snail mail campaign off the ground and maintaining it will be a breeze. However, just like any other marketing campaign, it requires lots of consistency and commitment.
7. You Can Get Creative With Direct Mail
Direct mail gives you the chance to really exercise your creativity muscle and get rewarded for it. With snail mail, you have unlimited creative options as compared to digital alternatives. You can get creative with your wording and your fonts.
To kick it up a notch, you can try using textured paper or emboss some of your text. Maybe throw in a scratch-to-reveal or scratch-to-sniff if that’s your line of business. Entice your customers with a bit of creativity when sending your marketing snail mail.
You Can Never Go Wrong With Direct Mail
Maybe you should give direct mail marketing a go and see how it goes for you. There’s a high probability it’s a decision you’ll live to thank yourself for. A proper snail mail marketing campaign is slow and well-thought-out, so try your best not to rush it.
There’s much more from where that came from. For more informative reads, be sure to check out the other pieces on the site. We publish a wide variety of direct mail marketing and print advertising, in addition to digital strategies.
