I’ll admit up front, I have a strong bias for direct mail. I grew up with it, I use it, and I sell it as part of my business printing and mailing services. If that makes me a mail chauvinist, so be it; I submit my face for the Mail Chauvinism recruiting poster.
But, as you are used to seeing me in your inbox each week, I’m also a proponent of email. What I’m REALLY a big fan of is using both because either one on its own is limiting. Printing and postage make mail more costly than email marketing, and email has become intrusive due to the sheer volume to wade through and manage. It’s the combination of the two, when done well, which deliver the most potential to build brand awareness and generate leads.
Many of our local clients at Paw Print & Mail use direct mail marketing regularly; including Champlain College, Efficiency Vermont, COTS, Creative Habitat, Burlington College, International Coin & Currency, and UVM College of Medicine, to name a few. They believe in direct mail because it generates higher-quality leads. Yes mail costs more than email, but it’s the ROI that determines the true cost; and higher quality leads generally convert to higher returns.
The keys to their success are:
- Mailing to the right people (the “list”),
- Connecting with their audience with relevant headlines, content, and sometimes an offer
- Driving recipients to their website to engage further and ultimately convert
- Finally, applying an email lead nurturing campaign, triggered by the direct mail piece, can improve results even more.
So what about integrating email with direct mail… what’s the skinny on that? If “data” is Queen (“data” used to be “King” but in my opinion “content” is now King), that makes having it key to marketing success; and for purposes of this discussion, I’m referring to data as someone’s email address (and preferably their name too).
There are multiple ways to acquire valuable contact information and one of the best ways to do so is to publish content that is compelling enough for someone to relinquish their valuable privacy. This can take the form of regular blogging, but also using direct mail. Why? Because each recipient physically lays their eyes and hands on a mail piece before they decide what to do with it.
When executed well, by virtue of an attractive design, relevant content, and an incentive (if/when appropriate), people will willingly and happily submit their email address if the content meets their needs. And THIS is why content is now King; because until I can get someone to know, like, and trust me, my product, or my organization, I’m just spending dollars on printing, mailing, and postage. But if those dollars convert to a genuine lead, then those dollars flip from dollars “spent” to dollars “invested”. Once someone opts-in with their email address, I now have a new connection and person to carry on the conversation with.
And this is just the beginning. Capture a genuine lead and then nurture those folks with continued help and advice; and the business will follow. This works for me and it’ll work for you. Sure beats going door-to-door.
Direct mail can be daunting to the uninitiated, but that’s where mailing professionals like us come in. We’ll process your list for the best postage rate and can handle every detail from planning, to design, to print, to mail drop.
Please contact me to discuss how direct marketing might work for you.