Integrating Direct Mail into your Digital Marketing Strategy
With the rise of digital marketing in recent years, many companies have had to alter their marketing strategy. Unfortunately, this has led to some traditional forms of direct marketing such as direct mail sometimes falling out of favour. However, this should not be the case. Digital marketing and traditional marketing can complement and work hand in hand for the benefit of your business. Integrating direct mail into your digital marketing strategy is a great way to increase your brand strength and sales.
Direct mail is by no means a thing of the past. In fact, it has been making a comeback in recent years which we look into further in another post.
In this post, we look into how you can implement this and explain how direct mail enhances your digital strategy. We have seen the benefits that direct mail brings to a business first hand. Despite the digital age, more traditional forms of direct marketing should not be ignored or forgotten about, quite the contrary in fact.
Different Audiences are More Receptive to Different Mediums
Through providing marketing services for our clients over many years, we see which mediums perform at higher rates. This has shown us that different demographics are more receptive to different marketing mediums. This is the same situation with direct mail. Having a tangible, high quality, printed marketing design that you can flick through and read can be more effective than an email in some cases. Gone are the days when we would receive far too much direct mail and were happy to receive an email. It has come full circle in a way where direct mail is now a welcome break from one of many emails sitting in an inbox.
While some people are more receptive to digital marketing methods such as social media, this is not the case for everyone. Some people enjoy the more personal touch that direct mail provides. As it is less common nowadays, it stands out so you notice it when you are going through your post. Even if the person is not in a position where they can buy, they will still have a browse/ read. On the other hand, if someone is not interested in an email they will delete it without even opening it in the majority of cases.
Therefore, eliminating direct mail from your marketing strategy also removes a large number of potential prospects. They may not be as active on social media or spend much time checking their emails. Messaging across all these mediums ensures you get in touch with the highest number of prospects as possible. This therefore increases the number of new acquisitions and sales. This is also known as cross-channel marketing which we address further in another post.
Separate offers through direct mail
An effective method of increasing the response and success of a direct mail campaign is to input a special offer onto the printed materials. This could be a sales discount code for example. Having different offers on different marketing platforms allows you to measure the success of each medium. This could also work with different landing pages on your website. If you put a website address on your printed marketing materials, consider having this as a different page to one that is on your digital marketing materials.
Consider rewarding loyalty through direct mail. Your long term customers or those that spend large amounts of money can benefit from money off their next order. This will be perfect with direct mail. Rather than receiving an email saying thanks, personalised, well designed letters with an included offer will be received in much higher regard. This not only makes customers feel appreciated, but the added personal touch of direct mail will be more memorable.
Promoting other marketing channels through direct mail
You can also use your direct mail materials to promote your other marketing platforms. For example, you can prompt people to follow you on Twitter and Facebook. Alternatively, if you regularly write a blog, you can mention this in your mailers. This will encourage more people to visit and read the blog. Overall, this will help increase your status on social media and increase the traffic through to your website. This shows how different marketing methods work together all for the benefit of the business. As digital marketing is so large nowadays, direct mail can be used effectively to promote the digital side of your business.
Consistent messages and design through all mediums build brand strength
Consistent styling and messages is key for brand awareness and strength. Any and all marketing materials should be similar to one another in style. This consistency increases brand recognition and helps build a relationship and trust. When you are marketing across multiple platforms, this is crucial. If you use different colours, fonts, logos etc, your audience may not be sure who is actually marketing to them.
Using the same style across all platforms strengthens them all. Brand recognition is key for success and being consistent increasing engagement and ultimately, sales.
Direct Mail has evolved
Direct mail is no longer a case of just sending out a simple leaflet to a target audience. Like digital marketing, direct mail has grown and adapted to how people are viewing marketing materials. Personalisation is a key element of this. This adds a personal touch to tangible marketing materials which makes a difference when someone is looking at them. Personalised materials are more likely to be opened and looked at compared to a generic letter addressed ‘To the Homeowner’ or ‘FAO: The Business Owner’.
Designs and printing have also improved dramatically over the years. The quality of printed marketing materials really makes it stand out from other marketing methods. High print quality and professional designs help your business be remembered by your audience. When you see a promotion that really stands out, you remember it and the company who did it. When the person is then in a position to buy, they are therefore more likely to purchase from you.
Promotional Merchandise
Sometimes nicknamed ‘swag’, promotional merchandise are products, often branded with a logo, used in marketing and communications programmes. They are given away to promote a company, corporate image, brand, or event at trade shows, conferences, and as part of guerrilla marketing campaigns.
This aspect of direct mail often works great to allow for a friendly, low key to action yet very effective brand and promotional awareness. After all, we all like to receive gifts.
This process will allow you to achieve one of many things. Mainly, it will create rapport with prospects and clients alike. This makes them more engaged and as such, more likely to get in touch or take up any of the services/products you offer when the time is right.
Summary
Despite the fact that we are living in a digital age, direct mail should still be a prevalent part of your marketing strategy. With online marketing being larger than ever, a high quality, printed piece of marketing material can really stand out and make a welcome change. Marketing on multiple fronts builds your brand strength as they complement and work with each other. This will increase people’s confidence in your business which will be key when they are ready to buy.
High quality data and tracking is essential. Through data, you can see who is interacting with your marketing materials. If you use multiple platforms, you can see who is responding to particular mediums. This will help you strategies the best people to target through direct mail.
Impact Marketing have been providing direct mail services for our clients for many years. If you want to find out more about how our service can benefit your marketing strategy, please get in touch and a member of the team will be happy to assist you.