Many marketers debate the merits of traditional marketing strategies. One of the topics that comes up is the effectiveness of direct mail marketing. Is direct mail marketing still a viable strategy in the digital age?
With our lives becoming more and more immersed online, many people are abandoning conventional marketing techniques that have been working for years, even though they may seem to be outdated, such as direct marketing. Before you decide whether to continue using direct mail marketing, you should know what it is and what its advantages are. You also need to know what materials you need, such as 5 x 7 envelopes.
DIRECT MARKETING IS STILL VERY EFFECTIVE
Although you can find different definitions of direct mail marketing, it is usually defined as using data from different channels to reach a targeted audience through the mail. As its name implies, the goal is to reach customers in the most direct way possible.
There are a lot of approaches to direct mail marketing. These services include, among others, mailing marketing literature, flyers and information brochures. Every day when you go home, you probably come across this type of advertising. If companies spend money on direct mail marketing, it is because they earn it back many times over by attracting high paying customers.
Many people spend so much immersed in online channels and engage with digital outreach services such as Adwords, email Marketing and Facebook Ads that they forget about conventional advertising services such as direct mail. Even though they are exposed to direct mail marketing regularly, it is easy to forget about it as a marketer themselves.
Direct marketing is also compatible with digital media, since there are different programs that allow marketers to evaluate statistics, metrics and data that allow them to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of digital outreach campaigns.
ADVANTAGES OF DIRECT MARKETING
There are a number of advantages of direct marketing. Some of these benefits are listed below.
Personalized marketing is fairly straightforward with direct mail
The biggest benefit of direct mail marketing is that is allows for total personalization. A lot of new research shows that customers actually prefer personalized marketing messages and it has a high ROI. If you have detailed information about the people that you would like to engage with, then you can personalize your letters and envelopes to connect with them. This will increase the likelihood of a response.
Customers are far more likely to see your message
Internet users have developed ad blindness over the years. They are exposed to so many different advertisements online that they just start tuning them out. They often ignore marketing messages that they receive in their email inbox. Of course, many promotional emails end up in their spam filter as well.
You don’t have to worry about this with direct mail marketing. Customers are going to see your message when they open their mailbox. They are going to have to touch it, which also makes it feel more real. They might throw it out, but at least they won’t be able to ignore it entirely like they would with digital marketing messages.
You can reach people in areas with more limited Internet use
There are some regions where the population doesn’t spend as much time on the Internet. This might be because the population is older and less interested in technology. It could also be due to the fact that some areas have more limited Internet accessibility.
Direct mail marketing can be perfect for reaching people in these areas. It might even be the only way to reach them if you don’t have a physical presence there.
Direct mail marketing has a very high ROI
Marketers that depend exclusively on digital media have the misconception that the ROI from direct mail marketing is very poor. Nothing to be further from the truth.
Direct mail marketing has the third highest ROI of any marketing medium. It ranks just after social media marketing, which only has an ROI that is 1% higher.
You can’t overlook the importance of direct mail marketing when you realize that it works so well for so many companies. If your target customer base is conducive to mail marketing, then it might actually be the best way to reach them.
