Where Direct Mail Fits in Your Omnichannel Marketing Strategy
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).
