Marketing has become much more accessible due to the increase of online marketing. Many companies are making the complete shift towards internet marketing – choosing tactics such as: Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Online Video Marketing, Cold-Emailing, and Blogging.
These are very cheap and cost effective methods that many online businesses are seeing great success with. However, there is one thing wrong with most marketing campaigns – they completely forget about the time-tested offline methods such as direct mail marketing! Direct mail is proven to be more effective than e-mail. Don’t believe me? Here are some statistics:
- According to a study conducted by DMA – when direct mail is sent to an existing customer, the response rate is 3.4%. The response rate for email is 0.12%.
- According to a study conducted by Ritter’s Communication – 50% of people pay more attention to direct mail than any other advertisement medium
Here are some of the reasons for these compelling stats:
Stand Out From the Crowd
Direct mail is felt. Therefore, when a customer picks up your mail and opens it – they are establishing a physical bond with your brand; something that e-mail is unable to do. Therefore, when that specific customer is thinking about making in your purchase, your mail will be the first thing that they remember.
Some people boost their marketing efforts by including “lumpy” mail – in which they send out gifts such as:
- Mini flashlights
- Rubik’s cubes
- Aspirins
- Sand timers
This makes the mail “lumpy” in order to press the recipient’s curiosity button and can really excite the potential or returning customer.
No Complicated Analytics
It’s quite easy to find out if someone has taken action with direct mail. There’s no complicated tools necessary – just measure the response rate of phone calls or coupons that you receive back. These are some of the easiest ways to determine if you sent out to the right demographic or not.
Highly Targeted
When you send out your direct mail – you can make sure that it is highly targeted. Simply knowing where a person lives can tell you a lot about things such as income, possible interests, etc. Be sure to do your homework before sending out your campaign as you can ever have too much information on your customers.
Your Calls Will Not Be Cold
Cold calling is one of the hardest tactics to master when you are trying to make a sale. It can take 100 no’s before you actually land an appointment – sometimes even more.The good news is that when you send a mailer and follow up on it, you will no longer be cold calling; you will simply be following up. This means that the call will be much more warm and friendly.
Direct Mail Will Be Opened
Direct mail has a higher likelihood of being opened than e-mail. A person’s mailbox demands a lot more attention than a person’s inbox. Why? When you send a mail, your brand is physically entering someone’s household. Your direct mail seems much more like an invitation and much less like spam if it is done correctly. Make sure that you offer something of value to the recipient. For example, if you are a dental practice you could use a dental direct mail campaign that sends out funny comics that customers will put on their fridge and share with their family members. This can have a great, positive and lasting effect for your business.
By making direct mail a staple of your marketing strategy – you will tap into a new dimension of sales!