10 Reasons You Need to Use Direct Mail Marketing

By Allan Euphrat

10 Potential Benefits of Direct Mail Marketing

As a business owner who has experience with direct mail marketing, you know the power that a well-crafted mail piece can have in driving sales and building customer relationships.

In today's digital age, it's more important than ever to stand out in your marketing efforts and cut through the noise of online advertising.

That's where direct mail marketing comes in.

Direct mail allows you to reach your target audience in a tangible and impactful way, providing a level of personalization and engagement that is hard to achieve through digital channels alone.

Because there is less competition in direct mail advertising, there's never been a better time to invest in this tried-and-true marketing strategy.

Direct mail marketing can increase brand awareness, drive sales, and build long-lasting customer relationships.

Here are 10 reasons you need to use direct mail marketing to grow your business.

1. Precise Targeting: Direct mail allows you to target your audience with precision. It’s the best way to take advantage of all the consumer and business information available today. You can obtain lists of prospect data that extend far beyond names and addresses to include details about professions, purchase preferences, ages, and much more. This greater personalization and relevance for each campaign segment enables marketers to define and target more accurately than ever.

• Define Your Target Audience: Determine the specific demographics, interests, and behaviors of your ideal customer. This information can be obtained through market research, customer surveys, and other data sources.
• Segment Your Mailing List: Divide your mailing list into segments based on the specific criteria (age/income/location/interest/etc) and customize your message to each segment. This could include personalized messaging, relevant images, and targeted offers.
• Multiple data sources: There are literally thousands of variable residential and business list sources available to target prospects from. These include many different national compiled lists, magazine lists, survey respondents, and many more.

With precise targeting, direct mail avoids spending marketing budget communicating with recipients who are not likely to be interested in your product or service.

2. Competitive Response Rates: Compared to other advertising channels, direct mail typically has a higher response rate, which means you're more likely to receive a response or action from your audience. In fact, 80% of consumers act on direct mail advertising, compared to the 45% action rate for digital media. Competitive response rates can be achieved by:

• Using a Compelling Headline: Your headline should grab the attention of your audience and make them want to read more. This can even be tested on the envelope.
• Personalizing Your Message: Personalize your message by name to make it more relevant and engaging to your audience.
• Making an Offer: Include a compelling offer, such as a discount or free gift, to encourage your audience to take action.
• Including a Call-to-Action: Clearly state what action you want your audience to take, such as visiting your website or calling your business.
• Using a Clear and Professional Design: Use a clean, professional design that is easy to read and visually appealing.
• Testing Frequency: Tests show that frequency can incrementally increase your overall campaign response rates. You can test and track the response effectiveness of mailing to your audience more than one time – while reinforcing your message and encouraging them to take action.

Response rates can be optimized by tracking the successful elements of each test, and leveraging them into each successful campaign roll-out.

3. Personalized customer data is valuable, but it’s nothing without personalization. Direct mail allows you to personalize your message to the recipient, using their name, location, and other information to make the message more relevant to them. Optimized personalization can be achieved by several strategies.

• Leveraging Customer Data: Information about your target audience, such as their name, location, purchase history, and interests can help your message read more personally.
• Use Variable Data Printing: With variable data printing you can insert personalized information into your mail piece, such as the recipient's name, location, or purchase history.
• Customize Your Message: Customize your message based on the recipient's interests, needs, and preferences. This could include targeted offers, relevant images, and personalized messaging.
• Use Personalized Landing Pages: This can help to convey consistency in your messaging all the way through your response web-site landing page and channels.
• Test Different Personalization Strategies: By implementing simple response tracking you can measure the effectiveness of various personalization strategies to identify what works best for your target audience. This could also include testing different offers, messaging, and design elements.

By personalizing your direct mail package to the recipient, it has the appearance of more one-to-one communication, thus leading to higher engagement and response rates.

4. Creative & Tangible: Many people want to receive mailed marketing messages. Unlike digital advertising, direct mail is a tangible item that your audience can touch and feel. In fact, according to a recent marketing survey, 59% of respondents agreed with the statement “I enjoy getting postal mail from brands about new products.” This can create a stronger emotional connection to your brand and message. A few things to consider in leveraging the tangible nature of your direct mail marketing campaign:

• Using High-Quality Materials: Your direct mail vehicle might be the first customer experience with your company. So, using high-quality materials and can be an initial reflection of your high-quality product and service.
• Consider the Format: Choose a format that allows your audience to interact with your mail piece, encouraging interest or curiosity – possibly including an insert or fold-out.
• Packaging: Unique & creative packaging can make your mail piece stand out in the recipient's mailbox.
• Include Samples: Including samples (of relevant freebies) in your mail piece (if possible) might help peak the interest of your audience for improved response results and offer/product recall.
• Emotional Appeals: Using emotional appeals in your messaging can help to create a deeper emotional connection with your audience.
• Multi-Sensory Elements: Encompassing multi-sensory elements, such as scents or textures, can make your mail piece more memorable and impactful in addition to standing out.

By leveraging the tangible nature of direct mail marketing, you can create a stronger emotional connection with your audience and increase the likelihood of a positive response to your message.

5. Builds Brand Awareness: Direct mail can help build brand awareness and credibility for your business. The familiarity of direct mail creates a sense of security and trustworthiness that resonates with many consumers, especially seniors and those unfamiliar with technology. By consistently sending relevant and informative mail, you can establish your business as an expert in your industry. Some of these brand awareness tips include:

• Frequency: Incorporating consistent branding and messaging into a frequency campaign can enhance brand awareness with your target audience. This helps to keep your brand top-of-mind and establish a regular presence in their mailbox.
• Establish Your Expertise: Use your direct mail pieces to promote your expertise in your industry by providing informative and valuable content that positions your business as a thought leader.
• Be Relevant: Ensure your direct mail pieces are relevant to your target audience by providing personalized content that speaks to their specific needs and interests helping to build brand appreciation.
• Consistent Brand Identity: Use consistent branding across all of your direct mail pieces to create a strong and recognizable brand identity. This includes leveraging consistent colors, typography, and imagery.
• Testimonials or Case Studies: Including testimonials or case studies in your direct mail piece can help establish credibility and build trust with your brand.
• Exclusive Offers: Offering exclusive deals or promotions to your direct mail recipients can create a sense of exclusivity and incentivize them to engage with your brand.

Direct mail marketing can be used to build brand awareness and credibility for your business, which can ultimately lead to increased sales and customer loyalty.

6. Trackable & Measurable: If set up correctly on the front–end of a campaign, direct mail marketing can be easily tracked and measured. A variety of techniques can be leveraged to track and measure the effectiveness of your campaigns – including landing page visits, inbound phone calls, and unique offers. You can track the response and conversion results of your campaigns, with pre-campaign planning.

• Set Measurable Metrics: Define specific goals to be measured for your campaign – such as response rates, clicks to unique landing pages, conversions, lead generation.
• Trackable Call-to-Action: Establishing “trackable” response channels such as a unique landing pages or unique inbound 800 numbers can help to quickly determine back-end response activity from your direct mail campaign.
• Monitor Response Rates: Monitor the response rate of your direct mail campaign to evaluate its effectiveness. This can help you identify which elements of your campaign are working and which ones need improvement.
• Measure ROI: Measuring the ROI of your direct mail campaign by comparing the cost of the campaign to the revenue generated is perhaps the most impactful metric of your campaign. It can also be used to compare to other marketing channels – such as print, broadcast and email.
• Compare Test Cells: By comparing different test cells that comprise strategic campaign elements such as variable list segments, messaging, design, and offers can be effectively used to determine the optimized combination to identify what works best for your next campaign.
• Continuously Improve: Use the insights from your data analysis to continuously improve your direct mail campaigns over time, helping to make them as dynamic as possible.

7. Competitive View Rates: If you briefly scan or read through each mail piece you receive, you’re not alone. According to a recent study by the U.S. Postal Service, 53% of Americans read their mail, while another 21% at least scan it. This means the vast majority of recipients will see your direct marketing message, which is more than other mediums such as email or online.

• No Fire Wall: As opposed to e-mail, which typically has very low open (or read) rates, direct mail is typically at least scanned by the recipient before it’s disgarded, saved, or responded to. With no real direct mail fire wall, this is a huge advantage over e-mail as a very high percentage of your campaign will at least be seen by your target market.
• Less Competition: As opposed to our email in-boxes, direct mail has less competition in the mail box. According to email receiving statistics, the average person receives over 100 emails per day. While the exact number could vary with users, experts generally agree that the average person receives around 100-120 emails daily, even without including the spam. Each direct mail piece has much less competition.

As opposed to email, which is challenged by firewalls and averages less that 10% open rate for those messages that do get through, direct mail has a read and open rates of over 90%. By leveraging the flexibility of direct mail marketing, you can achieve a variety of marketing objectives and reach your target audience in a way that is engaging and effective.

8. Cost-Effective: Direct mail advertising can be cost-effective compared to other advertising channels, especially if you have a targeted list and a well-designed campaign. According to an annual study by DMA, direct mail has an average ROI of 29%, which is competitive with online media.

• Volume Driven Budget: Since a direct mail campaign is largely related by the volume mailed, planning a campaign budget is simply driven by list, printing, letter-shop, and postage costs,
• Non-waste Targeting: Unlike print, broadcast, and electronic media, there is no waste marketing to recipients who do not match your target market. Precise list targeting ensures that you are sending your direct mail pieces to a highly targeted and qualified audience – helping to reduce your print and postage costs.
• Choose the Right Package Format: Test a format that aligns with your budget and marketing objectives. For example, postcards are a cost-effective format for simple messaging and offers, as opposed to personalized letters with an insert in a #10 matching envelope.
• Leverage Creative Printing: Digital printing options now exist that provide the look of a personal letter that is completely automated, thus impacting your response rates.

Testing and tracking different package options help to identify the least expensive way to attain a response and ROI that meets with your strategic objectives.

9. Longevity: Direct mail pieces can have a longer lifespan than other forms of advertising, such as online ads or social media posts. Your audience can keep your mail and refer to it later.

• Provide Useful Information: Provide useful information that your audience can refer to later, such as a calendar, a magnet, or a brochure with detailed product information.
• Make an Emotional Connection: Use emotional appeals in your messaging to create a lasting impression and make your audience more likely to hold onto your mail piece.
• Use Evergreen Content: Use “evergreen” content that will remain relevant and useful to your audience over time, such as tips and tricks, how-to guides, or industry insights.
• Include Contact Information: Include your contact information on your mail piece, such as your website, phone number, and email address, so that your audience can easily reach out to you in the future.
• Follow-Up: Follow up with your audience after they receive your mail piece to reinforce your message and remind them of your brand.

Direct mail packages offer a longer lifespan and make a lasting impressions on your audience, which can ultimately lead to increased brand awareness and customer loyalty…..and hopefully higher response and conversion rates.

10. Safe, Familiar, and Easy For Recipient: Although 21st-century technologies offer businesses more thrilling and innovative options than ever for reaching consumers, the fact is direct mail marketing is safe and familiar to consumers. 

• Perceived Higher Trust: The familiarity of direct mail means that consumers are more likely to trust ads that arrive in their mailbox than those that appear elsewhere, sich as social media or email.
• Less Competition in Mailbox: With direct mail marketing, there is less competition in a recipient’s mailbox as opposed to their email inbox, thus increasing your product and offer awareness.
• Trusting for less technical markets: If you’re targeting demographics that are less Internet-savvy, like older customers, direct mail can be an effective and efficient way of doing so….and eventually more easy and trusting for your recipient.  
• Easy Access: Just walk to your mail box and open it. The barrage of ads and other clutter on the Internet can confuse consumers and distract them from information about your business. Direct mail marketing requires only that you know how to check your mailbox.
• Effective Recall: With direct mail marketing, recipients can save their mailer and use it when they are ready to make a purchase. On social media, if you scroll past an ad, you most likely won’t remember it after a few minutes. However, with a physical mail piece sitting on your counter, you see it every day until you finally make a purchase. 

The familiarity of direct mail creates a sense of security and trustworthiness that resonates with many consumers, especially seniors and those unfamiliar with technology.

At DataDirect Marketing Solutions, Inc. we help answer the questions that you may be asking about your business:

• What do my customers look like?
• How can I find more of them?
• What is my market penetration?
• Which prospect lists will be most effective for my marketing?
• How can I clean up my customer data and use it more effectively?
• Is e-mail more effective than direct mail?
• How can I track the success of my direct marketing programs?

Interested in how DataDirect Marketing Solutions, Inc. can help with your direct marketing efforts?   Contact us to discuss your specific marketing needs.  We look forward to helping you add measurable results to your bottom line.

Contact DataDirect Marketing Solutions

Website: datadirectmarketing.com

Phone: 415-454-5264

Email: info@datadirectmarketing.com

DataDirect Marketing Solutions, Inc. is adatabase marketing company that utilizes technology and data to provide innovative marketing solutions to companies engaged in on-line and traditional direct marketing. We research, procure, process and analyze customer and prospect data to support our client's marketing efforts for direct mail and email marketing applications. For 25 years, our core focus continues to be helping our clients develop successful direct mail and email campaigns with customized services that include:

- Direct mail list research and brokerage

- Campaign response analysis

- Customized database processing

- Email list brokerage, deployment, and tracking

Our mission is to empower our clients with information they can apply intelligently to create their most effective marketing applications.

Our Success is measured on their return on marketing investment.