Email Marketing Challenges Solved by Direct Mail

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Those paying attention to trends in inbound and outbound marketing have caught wind of direct mail’s recent spike in popularity. Goldman Sachs recently devoted $25 million to the integration of direct mail in its email-centered automated advertising platforms.  Furthermore, the popular email marketing platform MailChimp, debuted a new service that empowers people to design and even mail their own postcards with minimal effort. These are just some of the examples of ways in which the marketing landscape is rapidly changing.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is highly effective if used in the proper fashion.  The challenge lies in establishing a legitimate email list and designing emails for distribution in mass quantity with minimal or no unit cost.  Ideally, email marketing messages will be centered on target customers’ buying habits, demographics and behaviors. As long as the message is relevant and presented in a somewhat artful manner, it will generate a response.  However, those who have an over-reliance on any one single marketing channel run the risk of tunnel vision that ultimately hampers sales.

How Direct Mail Solves Email Marketing problems: Email Fatigue

If you are on a mailing list, you know what it is like to grow tired of reading the same old messages over and over again.  The answer to this conundrum is for service/product providers to incorporate direct mail with email marketing. Direct mail steps can be included in advertising automation programs to provide a fully personalized message to target prospects and current customers.

Tackling the Problem of Unsubscribes

There is a good chance your emails will catch some recipients at a point in time at which they are excessively busy.  These irritated clients will likely unsubscribe if they continue to receive your messages amidst hectic workdays. The answer is to establish a direct mail based drip advertising push that keeps your business on the minds of target clients.  If the customer has a lengthy sales cycle, a quarterly transmission might prove acceptable. However, if the sales cycles are comparably short, consider transmitting large postcards on a monthly basis or even mixing things up with a more involved mailing.

The Battle for the Inbox

An email that is not read in the first couple hours probably won’t be read at all.  An even worse outcome is Gmail redirecting the email to the often-neglected Promotions folder.  Furthermore, it is challenging to distinguish a brand through email as the medium is inherently limited by a couple text boxes.  The best approach to overcoming these problems is to transmit direct mailers to marketing lists.

Embrace the Challenge of Building Your Email List

Do not shy away from email marketing out of a fear that you will never assemble an expansive email list.  You will build a solid email list in due time. It will help to use direct mail as the initial contact point for lead generation.  Use direct mail to ramp up brand awareness and warm those leads prior to a sales call and/or unique offer that steers leads to your landing page.  Once leads arrive at the landing page, have them enter their email address that is added directly to your email list.

The Time has Come for Marketers to Reconsider Their Channel Mix

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The arrival of the digital era has provided marketers with an abundance of channels to connect with prospective customers.  These breakthrough methods of communication certainly have their merits yet there is opportunity beyond online marketing. Email is now one of the most revered avenues to connect with customers.  The challenge lies in getting those on your email list to open your messages and spend more than a couple seconds engaging with the content.

A Quick Look at GDPR

Companies far and wide are tasked with adapting to GDPR.  This is an acronym that stands for General Data Protection Regulation. Adapting to the specifics of GDPR requires companies to critique their marketing strategy. This is the perfect opportunity to take advantage of direct mail.  GDPR is meant to return control over individual data back to everyday people. Though reaching full compliance certainly requires a considerable amount of effort and resources, compliance ultimately means transparency and improved customer relationships.

In the end, companies that adhere to the nuances of regulations will ultimately enjoy higher quality relationships with clients that prove mutually beneficial to both parties.  However, GDPR is not the sole data regulation that will affect marketers. Once 2020 arrives, the ePrivacy Regulation will be in full force. This regulation establishes guidelines for digital marketing.  Stay tuned to see how the details of this legislation impact direct mail marketing.

The Power of Direct Mail

Direct mail can be used in accordance with the rules established byGDPR.  In fact, some consider direct mail to be just as effective as email marketing.  A number of studies show direct mail really does resonate with the target audience, especially those in the millennial age cohort.  Though some millennials seem to be handcuffed to their screens, the majority of these young adults react positively to a personal card, letter or other item received through traditional mail.  The arrival of such an item is quite the refreshing surprise after receiving an influx of emails on a daily basis.

Direct mail is also attractive to marketers in that it presents an opportunity for brands to put their unique style and creativity on display.  There is no exact dimension to fit or a specific space to fill as direct mailings can feature their own unique style. Companies that experiment with alterations to the size, shape and color of direct mail will find it is easier to establish inroads with prospective customers.

Consider “Viewability”

Viewability is a term that refers to the frequency and ease of viewing specific materials.  Email marketing is rife with viewability shortcomings. The vast majority of marketing emails go unopened.  Alternatively, two-thirds of direct mail transmissions are opened. The bottom line is people really do look forward to opening tangible mail as opposed to electronic mail.  

So don’t buy into the hype about consumers, especially young ones, always favoring electronic ads.  Brands can make a meaningful impression on buyers of all ages and other demographic cohorts through a strategic direct mail marketing effort.  The moral of this story is tangible items such as letters, postcards and boxes really do make a more meaningful impression on the human brain than electronic transmissions.  Use both forms of communication in a highly strategic manner, diversify your channel mix and you will make the most of your marketing budget.

Direct Mail + Millennials: A Counterintuitive Jackpot?

Millennials are the first generation to come of age in the Digital Age. They’re the most comfortable with social media, computers, technology, and digitizing and automating tasks. They came of age during a time when print media went on the decline. For example, many may have never even read a newspaper, much less subscribed to one. It would then seem obvious that Millennials don’t even check their mailboxes, and if they do, it’s only for Amazon packages and with the hope that there’s nothing from their school loan lenders. So, why would any marketer in their right mind use direct mail to reach Millennials?

Because Millennials love getting mail.

Okay, maybe not love, but they certainly don’t hate it.

Millennials actually *read* their mail?

Many of us in older generations have grown accustomed, perhaps even trained, to ignore the accumulation of mail in our mailboxes every day to search for the necessary things: bills, letters, greeting cards, magazines, and the like. Yet, direct mail had remained the backbone of so many companys’ marketing efforts. While we may no longer see so many catalogs, credit card offers, sample magazines, or flyers in our mailboxes, for many in older generations, this may seem like a welcome relief.

Yet, Millennials are actually more likely to open their mail and look at it. This is probably exactly why Millennials open their mail: they didn’t come of age with the same concept of “junk mail” that Generation X and Baby Boomers did.

Go Where the Competition Isn’t

On the other hand, generations that grew up in the digital age have their own version of “junk mail”: pop-up ads, emails promotions, text messages, banner ads, unwanted webpage redirects, exit pop-ups, targeted social media ads and the like. Millennials are accustomed to ignoring what is not interesting to them when they’re staring at their screens. On the other hand, they don’t get nearly as much physical mail, and digital printing has advanced so much in the 21st century that direct mail can take advantage of eye-catching colors, patterns, and logos as well as complete customization that a pop-up ad or an email can’t quite do. A beautiful direct mail package designed as if it was meant specifically for just that recipient vs. one more social media ad? The direct mail package is going to win.

And, direct mail doesn’t threaten to steal your data if you open it.

Take advantage of technology and make it personal

No matter how cute or interesting something is on the screen, it can only engage the eyes and the ears, whereas direct mail engages other senses. To hold a beautiful piece of mail and look it over means that it is making an impression, one that lasts longer than a banner ad. Even if the recipient throws the package away (an unfortunate, but expected result), your product, company, or services have still made a strong impression, and the recipient will remember your brand longer than if it flashed on the screen, competing for their attention with all the other ads.

While the digital age has risen, so has customization, from 3-D printers, to print-on-demand books, to Etsy sellers who will print lollipops with you and your fiancés name on them and your wedding date. Now, with variable data printing and short-run/print-on-demanding printing, you don’t need to budget a fortune to and gamble on an ROI or A/B testing: you find your target audience, you figure out what they like, and you mail it to them.

Takeaway

You can reach Millennials by sending them something in the mail that they can hold. You can customize it to reach different demographics within the Millennial generation, and because they don’t have a real opinion about mail, they’ll open it, giving you the precious seconds you need to make a lasting impression.

Where Direct Mail Fits in Your Omnichannel Marketing Strategy

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Companies do their best to adjust their marketing efforts to an increasingly digital world by becoming more accessible on a variety of platforms. While quantity may make a company more visible, without integration and the ability to move from one channel to another, a company is never fully utilizing their marketing potential. Omnichannel marketing synthesizes marketing channels, letting a customer move seamlessly from one experience to another. A channel marketing professionals may overlook, however, is direct mail. While direct mail isn’t digital and may not appear to connect easily to all digital channels, it fills an often overlooked gap.

What’s the difference between a multi-level marketing strategy and an omnichannel marketing strategy?

Imagine that multichannel marketing is like a yarn made of various strands, with various colors. Now, imagining knitting those strands together to make fabric. That’s omnichannel marketing. An omnichannel marketing strategy takes a multi-level marketing strategy and weaves the multiple channels together together to create one total experience. Both strategies make use of various types digital media, like websites, social media, email, texts, and apps. Simply having all of these at the company’s disposal to attract and retain customers is multi-level marketing. What makes an omichannel marketing strategy different is that are interconnected to create one whole user experience. For example, if a user is on the Facebook app on her smart phone and opens an advertisement for something sold on Amazon the Amazon app will open, taking the consumer directly to the page where she can purchase the item without doing anything more. When she orders the product, Amazon will give her updates in real time by email and by alerts on her phone to let her know when it ships and when to expect it to arrive.

Omnichannel Marketing: is it really all online?

Most multi-level and omnichannel marketing strategies make use of the Internet and all it has to offer because it’s cheaper, easier, and the results can be seen much more quickly. However, that doesn’t mean that print is entirely dead, or that customers don’t respond to direct mail anymore. In fact, every omnichannel marketing strategy should still include direct mail campaigns precisely because it’s offline.

What’s different about direct mail?

It used to be that mailboxes would be inundated with direct mail, and the more shopping someone did, the more direct mail they would receive. Now, however, it’s more rare to receive direct mail from a company, as catalogs and special offer mailings have dwindled in recent years. However, unlike staring at a screen, holding a physical object with your name on it makes a lasting mental impression that digital material can’t imitate.

People don’t like getting things they consider “junk,” but they will keep marketing materials that are tailored to them and their needs, particularly if they’ve already done business with a company. They may use them right away or set them aside, but they’re always still available to them.

Direct mail campaigns can be tailored to customer’s specific needs and integrate with digital channels. Catalogs, direct mail pieces, and postcards can offer things that other channels cannot, like QR Codes, special discount codes, coupons, and free samples.

What if they simply throw it away?

Even if the customer throws the mail away, she still had to hold it in her hand, look at it, and commit to the act of throwing it away. That’s enough time and energy spent to make her remember something about it. On the other hand, she could always delete an email without opening it, or close a pop-up ad without letting the graphic load all the way. However, she has to hold, look at, and read direct mail for at least a moment. At the very least, direct mail is a part of the overall branding experience that captures a customer’s attention where they least expect it: offline. Thus, if you really want to create a holistic, omnichannel marketing strategy, reaching your customers offline through a direct mail campaign is a vital component (and too often overlooked).

Automotive Direct Mail vs. Email: Which is Best for Your Marketing Campaign?

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In the beginning, there was mail…

And the mail was good. Letter and post delivery has a centuries-long history. For much of the last 300 years, it’s been the main, and perhaps most efficient way for people to communicate with each other over long distances. Love letters, packages, bad news, catalogs, job applications, and so many other things were passed from delivery person to depot to station and back again to whomever it was addressed. For many who lived in rural and remote areas, mail was a way to reach out to the world and to get the things that weren’t readily available in the world around them.

But then came the information age.

Then, in the late 20th century, there was email. Email was first a means of electronic communication among the few, often within the same network or institution. Then came the digital age, household Internet, and free email services. Now, almost everyone has at least one email address.

Email is nearly instantaneous. It’s cheap, and for most recipients, it doesn’t cost a thing. An email to your co-worker in the next office takes just as long as to the office in London or Shanghai. 3 words or 3000, pictures, attachments, and the like can zip through space and time.

So, why would anyone still use snail mail?

Email never actually replaced snail mail.

Email can never be tangible. It can’t be glossy or satin, or brightly colored. It can’t be seen peeking out of the mailbox. It can’t be held in the hand, opened, and unfolded. It can’t contain a little gift, or a hand-signed letter. There’s nothing crisp and complete about email; unlike a letter, if there’s something to open in an email, it needs a virus scan first. No one wants to see the black-on-white text of your emails, but that letter with the cool graphics? The postal carrier, your roommate, your significant other, and whoever else can pick it up and look at it.

Email marketing hasn’t replaced direct mail, either.

In fact, direct mail marketing is seeing a quiet Renaissance. This may seem counterintuitive: after all, who reads mail anymore? Everyone who opens their mailbox reads some part of a single direct mail piece, even if it’s just the hook line the envelope before they throw it out. That is a visual-tactile sensory that will stay with the reader, an experience that email just can’t mimic.

On the other hand, does anyone actually go through their spam folder anymore? And how many times have you unsubscribed to an email list simply because you received too many emails?

Sure, email can be sent directly to someone important. If you want to reach the CEO of a company, you can email the CEO directly (if you have her email address). That doesn’t your email will be read by anyone though, or that the title of your email will make it stand it out any more than the other emails.

However, a beautiful direct mail piece may land on her desk, and even if she doesn’t open it, she sees it. She picks it up.

You may be getting less direct mail than you did 15, 20 years ago, but you’re looking at the direct mail you’re getting nowadays because it is specifically targeted to you, highly designed, and carefully planned.

Is Direct Mail always the answer to my marketing questions?

If the question is “How do I become seen by as many people as possible in the most direct way?” then the answer is yes. However, if the question is “how do I hold the attention of the customers I already have?” the answer is…

…it depends.

A good rule of thumb: quick campaign, quick method. Slow campaign, slow method.

Have a flash sale? Want to reach a core group of subscribers or members today? Use email. Are you anticipating more sales over the holiday season? Send a direct mail piece.

Or use both.

You can always send an email blast to your customer list, but if you want to reach just a few of them in certain demographics at certain times, or you want to do a favor for the most loyal customers, consider all the options that direct mail provides. Printing too has caught up with the times, and the possibilities are nearly endless. Now, you can create vivid, eye-catching direct mail packages for small campaigns without having to worry about the ROI on a niche campaign requiring no more technical know-how than desktop publishing.

You always have the option to email your customers, but don’t overlook direct mail and the power of curiosity that makes someone open an envelope.

Real-time Data Meets Direct Mail Marketing

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Despite a global transition to everything digital, direct mail marketing continues to dominate. Direct marketers continue to spend $45 billion each year in the United States. 80% of consumers engage with direct mail, and 95% of 18-29 year olds claim to have a positive response when receiving direct mail.

Given the high performance and preference for direct mail, there are still ways that marketers can use technology to ensure even better marketing success. Companies can use big data to strategically plan their direct mail campaigns, and a tailored strategy can enhance marketing effectiveness by targeting consumer behaviors.

 

Digital vs. Direct: Is There a Clear Winner?

There are many advantages to digital mail marketing. Digital mail uses intent data to pinpoint prospective consumers that are actively researching a product or topic online. Companies can use this data to increase relevance of a product and immediately send a message to a potential consumer regarding that product. Digital mail can also be optimized instantaneously based on consumer response rates, as well as their reaction to external factors (e.g., news or ads).

However, the instantaneousness of digital mail also means that companies risk overburdening the consumer with messages. Moreover, the ease of creation of a digital message may create a weak brand impression to a consumer that may see 10, 20, or 50 of these a day.

On the other hand, direct mail is tangible and physically brought into a consumer’s home. The consumer can hold the piece of mail and refer back to it when needed. It also allows people other than its intended recipient to see the message and companies to expand their brand awareness.

 

Shopping Cart Abandonment

There are benefits to both digital and direct mail. However, with a response rate of 5.1% for direct mail vs. 0.6% for digital, a winner begins to emerge. But this isn’t the end of the story. What if you could take the best aspects of the digital world and apply them to direct mail? Well, you can.

A great example of this is shopping cart abandonment. We’ve all been there. We’re browsing our favorite shopping site, add a product we like to the cart, then an email comes in – or the phone rings – or the kids start arguing. We abandon what was in the cart to tend to whatever lives throws at us.

According to the Baymard Institute, the average documented online shopping cart abandonment rate is about 70%. This percentage increases even more to 85.65% for mobile phone shoppers. Unsurprisingly, the most common strategy for cart abandonment reminders are follow-up emails. And as noted above, these digital messages often wear thin on a digitally-fatigued consumer.

“This is very typical in any market, whereby there [is] a certain level of fatigue that had been reached with email. When you send something, it could be a targeted email…the conversion reaches a level which is very hard for a brand to beat or to move into a higher performance,” says Dan Dunn, CEO of the marketing company Paperplanes.Companies can overcome this fatigue by combining the efficiency of real-time data with the personalization and effectiveness of direct mail.

A recent case study by Paperplanes measured the success of such a situation. Paperplanes took the non-responders of an emailed abandoned basket campaign and followed up with programmatic direct mail within 48 hours. What they noticed was significant: a 14% increase in abandoned basket recovery and an 8% increase in average order value.

 

In a world that is going digital in virtually every facet of life, mass communications sent out via digital mail are making consumers more and more wary. The personalization and level of connection consumers feel with direct mail can help overcome their caution and overall distain for mass digital communications. By using real-time data to analyze consumer action, businesses can expand on the direct mail medium, and turn it into a practical and powerful marketing tool.

 

Significance of Engagement Marketing through Direct Mail

Rather than viewing consumers as passive receivers of information, engagement marketing is a concept that looks at consumers as active members in the marketing process. Engagement marketing seeks to engage consumers and encourage them to participate in the building of a brand. Naturally, one might expect that digital mail is the best way to reach such an active audience. However, this isn’t the always the case.

Even in this digital age, studies show that direct mail not only has a greater impact on marketing statistics, but consumers actually prefer hard-copy mail.

 

Frequency of Engagement

Digital marketing is everywhere. We’re inundated with spam messages in our email inboxes and constantly see advertisements on our favorite websites. However, even though these digital marketing platforms are constantly surrounding our digital lives, recent studies show that nearly 80% of respondent’s engage with direct mail. Conversely, only 55% say the same about their email messages.

These numbers increase among millennials, and it’s easy to see why. Most of our daily lives are centered on technology and the LCD screens that display the information. The experience of receiving an actual piece of tangible mail is highly valued and gives us a much-needed break from our screens.

The high frequency of engagement with direct mail means that consumers are taking the time to read what’s in their mailbox and interact with the content. It’s not as easy as hitting the delete button when a message pops up on your screen.

 

Duration

In addition to the frequency of engagement with direct mail, we’re also seeing that consumers spend a greater duration of time engaging with direct mail. The amount of time a consumer spends with direct mail is somewhere between 1-5 minutes. Contrast this with less than a minute for digital communication.

A recent research report by Keypoint Intelligence – InfoTrends revealed the importance of the duration of engagement with direct mail.

“Beyond engagement frequency, the duration of engagement says a lot about the value and meaningfulness of a communication. Our research confirms that the overall engagement duration is longer for direct mail pieces than it is for e-mail marketing messages, even among Millennials . . . Defying assumptions about their nature as digital natives, Millennials spend more time engaging with print than they do with digital messaging—direct mail actually gets noticed in today’s digital age!”

 

Preference

“The Mail Moment”, as McCann CEO Harris Diamond puts it, is that flutter you get in your stomach when you open a piece of mail. According to Diamond, “It’s an important moment in people’s lives and one that presents great marketing opportunities.” This is especially true of millennials.

According to a recent Gallup poll, 95% of 18-29 year olds have a positive response receiving personal mail. Moreover, the United States Postal Service found that, on average, 50% of millennials consider scanning their mail time well spent.

There is a misconception among many marketers that to connect with millennials a digital program is needed. Jeff Hayes, managing director of InfoTrends, recently shared data regarding a survey on use of direct mail.

According to Hayes, “Our research indicates that millennials react more favorably to relevant and creative direct mail pieces than boomers or Gen Xers, particularly when it is part of a multi-channel campaign.”

This generation of consumer will wield an estimated $1.4 trillion in spending power over the next 3 years. Direct mail provides a marketing tool that offers consumers a break from technology and does so in a format that they enjoy engaging with. When it comes to engagement marketing, digital mail is still at the forefront for most successful businesses.

Direct Mail: Still the Lowest Cost-Per-Lead and Highest Conversion Rate

At first glance, it may be difficult to imagine how direct mail can generate a lower cost-per-lead than email. Postage costs continue to rise, and not to mention the costs of designing and printing, it starts to sound like direct mail campaigns are pretty expensive.

However, when we hear phrases such as “lowest cost-per-lead” and “highest conversion rate”, we usually expect to hear “Return on Investment”, or ROI, as well. Believe it or not, direct mail can offer a higher ROI and businesses can maximize their marketing results while minimizing costs with direct mail. In fact, according to the Direct Mail Association, the cost-per-lead of direct mail is $51.40/order. Contrast that with $55.24/order via email or $190.49/order via telemarketing. This article offers some tips on how to generate a lower cost-per-lead and higher conversion rate with direct mail.

Choose the Best Format

With a higher conversion rate of any other marketing medium, direct mail can be even further optimized when the correct format is used. For example, many people think of direct mail having to be large and expensive to be effective. This isn’t the case. The United States Postal Service recently found that postcards are the most likely form of mail that is read or scanned by consumers.

Like an online ad, by focusing on grabbing the reader’s attention with calls to action, graphics, etc. you can ensure that the reader will notice your content. And with 98% of consumers bringing their mail in the day it’s delivered, you can ensure its read quickly. Stay away from formats such as a No. 10 envelope. We usually see this format from a credit agency or when we receive a ticket in the mail. Nobody likes this, and accordingly, it won’t garner much attention from your audience.

Keep it Personal

As has long been the case, personal communications out-do generic and cold pitches. Go beyond simply adding a person’s name to the communication, find something that will stand out to them on a more personal level. Do some research and determine how to focus your content. A generic message that tries to cover issues for all platforms comes across as cumbersome, boring and not personal. You’ll find that it’s well worth a little extra time and small expense to ensure that your communication not only says the right thing, but also reaches the right people.

Timing is Everything

In the world of communication, timing is everything. And in this day and age, gone are the days of direct mail campaigns taking weeks to execute due to developing concepts, printing, etc. Today, marketers can take advantage of digital print-on-demand and have their products and ideas delivered to consumers in a matter of days. This allows you to be much more flexible in how you use direct mail.

For example, salespeople who complete a sales call can drop a postcard in the mail that day, thanking them for their time or even offering a special discount on a product they may not have otherwise had. This also provides a great opportunity to leverage the point above: keep it personal. Also, consider the time of year in which you are trying to reach your customers. Of course, sending out promotions for swimming pool supplies in November may just upset a customer and remind them of the enduring winter ahead.  

As you can see, direct mail can still yield the lowest cost-per-lead while offering a high conversion rate. Using less expensive tools doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice impact on consumers. Make sure to choose the best format, keep it personal and consider the timing of the communication and you will see your cost-per-lead drop and your conversion rate increase.

5 Reasons Why Direct Mail Is an Effective Business Tool

It’s no longer accurate to say that readers are moving toward a digital preference to receive their content. Readers aren’t moving that way, they’re already there. So, then, why is this article titled “5 Reasons Why Direct Mail is an Effective Business Tool”? Short answer: Statistics, science and physical connection. Long answer: see below.

 

 

  1. Science – Neuroscience to be Exact
    A recent study from Temple University consumer neuroscience researchers found significant differences in the way our brains process digital services and direct mail. Among their findings, while digital ads are processed faster, consumers engage with paper ads for a longer period of time, and the physical ads often cause more activity in parts of the brain associated with value and desire. Moreover, the study showed that physical ads cause greater activation of the ventral striatum – the brain structure whose activity is most predictive of future purchasing.

  2. Physical Mail Stands Out
    Although logic may dictate that as we move into a digital world more people want to separate from physical mail, studies show that actually isn’t the case—especially with millennials. Largely this is because millennials are inundated with digital media. Physical mail stands out in the otherwise electronic world. This generation is also geared toward visual content, and direct mail caters to the physical senses. Plus, who doesn’t like getting mail

  3. Tangibility + Activity = Increased Purchases
    Here’s a couple interesting statistics: 98% of consumers bring their mail in the day it’s delivered, and according to a recent survey by the USPS, 84% have purchased an item after seeing it in a direct mail catalog. A large reason for this is because direct mail is active – it’s concrete and tangible. Unlike digital ads, which are often scrolled over, direct mail demands action by the recipient.

  4. Connect Your Digital & Physical Worlds
    Consumers react well to physical mail. They enjoy engaging with the story of the product and appreciate the convenience of being able to flip through pages until something catches their eye. However, ordering a product may prove slightly more challenging as you have to call a number and, yes, actually speak to someone. Direct mail can bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds by showing customers how they can make purchases online. Moreover, 70% of Americans say mail is more personal than the internet.
  5. Reach and Re-engage
    In a recent survey of millennials asking them which form of marketing is more effective at getting them to take action, 30% said direct mail; only 24% said email. With a 70% opening rate, direct mail continues to dominate among the marketing tools employed by companies. By sending out direct mail, companies can reach a mass amount of people, and once inside, consumers feel a sense of personal connection with the products that cannot be duplicated online. Companies can also reach new customers by sending out direct mail, and re-engaging with existing customers by creating a follow-up mailing after an initial purchase.

 

In our current society dominated by digital content, direct mail is still an effective business tool. By utilizing the strengths of direct mail, companies can ensure consumers are exposed to their product through a medium they enjoy, but also point them to their online presence. With direct mail expected to grow 5.4% for B2B Direct Sales, its effectiveness won’t be shrinking any time soon. Contact Pel Hughes today to discuss what direct mail can do for you!

What is a self mailer?

You probably find self-mailers in your mailbox almost every day, but you may not realize what a powerful and cost-effective marketing tool they can be.

A self-mailer is promotional material that’s mailed without an envelope. It can be anything from a simple postcard to an elaborate brochure or catalog. You might think of self-mailers as “junk mail,” but with their simple design and eye-catching presence, self-mailers can command attention and ensure that your message is read and shared.

Most self-mailers are created from a single piece of durable paper or cardstock, which is folded into panels and secured with adhesive tabs or glue spots to keep it tightly closed during transit. Common folding configurations for a self-mailer include the bi-fold, tri-fold, and four-panel fold.

 

Types of Self-Mailers

Most of what’s sent as direct mail falls into one of two categories. The first is the classic sales letter. It’s addressed directly to the recipient, and it may include additional information like brochures, catalogs or response cards. As you’d expect, the letters are placed into envelopes for mailing.

The other type of direct mail is the self-mailer. A self-mailer can be any of the following:

  • A postcard
  • A sheet of paper or cardstock that is folded and sealed at the edge
  • A booklet
  • A catalog

Self-mailers can be folded in a variety of ways, and they can be sealed with glue or wafer seals. They can be printed on paper or cardstock, and cardstock self-mailers can include a tear-off response card.

Benefits of Self- Mailers

Creative, eye catching designs – since a self-mailer doesn’t use an envelope, you can pick a splashy design and really go for it. Self-mailers are good for displaying photos and graphics. And you don’t have to worry about carrying your design theme through to multiple sheets of paper and envelopes. This is why self-mailers are so popular for promotional purposes, such as announcing sales and events, or marketing products and services with a brief yet compelling offer.

Saves money – Self-mailers can be less expensive to print because there’s just one sheet of paper – not multiple items and envelopes.

Help people remember events, sales and coupons – If you’ve ever stuck a coupon, a notice of a sale, or an event invitation on the refrigerator or left it out as a reminder, then you understand how the bold graphics of a self-mailer can help people remember a message long after it’s been sent.

A good way to send special offers, event and product notifications to your loyal customers –  By targeting people who have done business with you before, you increase your response rate because you are sending your self-mailer only to people who are likely to be interested in what you have to offer.

If a Self-Mailer sounds like something you would like to incorporate into your marketing plan, get in touch with Pel Hughes!