Big Brands Know the Benefits of Direct Mail Marketing

While digital advertising has replaced many forms of print media, such as newspapers and magazines, direct mail campaigns are still used by many advertisers, including two of the largest online retailers—Amazon and Wayfair. Why? There are several benefits connected to direct mail that continue to make it effective in today’s marketing strategies.

Direct Mail is Tangible

To begin with, direct mail is a physical piece of advertising. In an increasingly digital marketing landscape, a physical piece of mail disrupts the digital noise of consumers’ lives. In fact, direct mail’s response rate remains higher than that of other marketing channels:

• Direct Mail response rate: 5.1 percent
• Email response rate: 0.6 percent
• Email response rate: 0.6 percent

 

With direct mail, you can hyper-target a specific list of customers or a particular demographic group. Consumers like the personalized, tangible nature of direct mail and are more likely to respond to offers from a physical piece of mail they can sit with and process at their leisure, instead of chasing after an offer that disappears into the ether or when they choose to ignore their email ads altogether.

Consumers Respond to Enhanced Mail and Interactive Mailers

Recently, research has revealed that 78 percent of consumers say that they are more likely to respond to direct mail that incorporates various physical elements, such as textured paper, 3D printing, embossing, pop-up elements, and other interactive features than they are to traditional direct mail. Especially effective for luxury brands and high-end products, these high-impact mailers create a sense of quality and exclusivity.

Adding interactive elements to mailers is an easy way to invite recipients to engage with your mailers, such as QR codes that direct recipients to a special promo or your website or using puzzles and other interactive elements to entice consumers to spend time with mailers.

Largest Retailers Getting into High-Impact Direct Mail

In fact, enhanced direct mail is so successful that some of the largest retailers, including Amazon and Wayfair are integrating more high-impact direct mail pieces in their marketing strategies. Last Christmas, Amazon cozied up to shoppers by sending out a holiday catalog, with textured covers and by sending out samples. Other enhanced Amazon mail includes personalized letters and cards to create memorable customer experiences and to build brand loyalty. More large brands are opting for enhanced mail strategies to break through online ad blindness.

• Wayfair mails out special discount coupons, as does Kohl’s several times a year.
• Prada, Dior, Chanel, Loewe, Alighieri and other luxury brands are using high-end physical mailers and branded books to make a splash.
• Crew, Patagonia, Moscot, and PME Legend are among brands that are answering a nostalgic trend towards a printed catalog revival for a more tangible customer experience.
• AYR, Guess, True Religion, Reformation, and other ecommerce brands are moving back to mailing catalogs to break away from social media advertising fatigue.
• British Sky Broadcasting, BT Group, Virgin Media and other large telecom corporations “invested millions of dollars last year,” according to a Guardian article.
  
  

Vogue Business noted that, “Physical marketing remains effective as it provides a tangible experience that stands out in contrast to cluttered digital spaces.”

Developing Successful Direct Mail Strategies

Along with choosing interesting formats, some essential considerations for a successful direct mail strategy are these:

• Personalizing your direct mail with the recipient’s name and other pertinent information
• Employing eye-catching visuals and well-thought-out designs to make your direct mail even more engaging
• Using clear, concise messaging that highlights your products or services
• Including a clear call-to-action that acts as an incentive to engage with your offer, such as a QR code that directs consumers to your ecommerce site
• Offering special pricing, a promotion, or a detachable in-store coupon to entice shoppers to take action
• Using tracking and analytics to measure the effectiveness of the mailer and/or offers to make improvements for future campaigns.

Tracking and Analytics of Today’s Direct Mail

Another impressive advantage of direct mail lies in the fact that, unlike television or radio advertising, today’s direct mail is measurable. This means that brands can easily track the success of their direct mail campaigns by including custom URLs and using unique promo codes in their mail pieces. Tracking the number of responses to your direct mail ads and the amount of sales generated allows you to refine your marketing strategies and ultimately improve your ROI over time.

Getting the Most out of Direct Mail Campaigns

To get the most out of your direct mail campaigns:

• Use variable data printing to customize mailers with personalized messages and specific offers
• Generate mailing lists targeted to the demographics you want to incentivize, such as customer purchasing history, potential customers and other criteria.
• Follow up with recipients that don’t respond to your initial direct mailer by sending out a second or third piece with different offers and messaging to improve response rates.