Email Marketing Challenges Solved by Direct Mail
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.
