Direct mail marketing is a marketing strategy used by many business owners to deliver their promotional messages to customers’ or potential customers’ doorstep. They use the US Postal Service to deliver the mail to the customers directly. It’s one of the most common ways through which companies today “talk” to their customers.
The practice of using direct mail for marketing purposes has been around for a long time. Back in the day when there was no internet, direct mail marketing was one of the best ways to connect with customers.
Today, despite the internet and social media being the most popular means to market your products, direct mail is still able to hold its own. In fact, it has some advantages over other forms of marketing. Here’s why you should still consider marketing your products directly through mail:
- Your message has a better chance of being received – unlike email marketing, where a customer can put your emails directly into the spam folder without reading them, actual mail needs to be opened to find out what it contains. Once a customer opens your mail, you’ll have to make sure that you capture their attention long enough for them to read through the entire promo.
- You get to speak directly to your target audience – mail sent via direct mail is not sent to just anyone. A third party research team usually collects emails and personal information on potential customers, to determine if they’re part of the target demographic that you’re looking for. The information is then filtered to find the right customers, and mail is sent to their addresses.
This target marketing strategy is better than casting a huge net, or sending email messages to thousands of unknown email addresses. The unknown addresses might return a few “bites” from the correct demographic, but a huge number of them are also lost to other email recipients that don’t qualify as the target audience. Casting a smaller net on people whose buying potential is greater, as in the case with direct mail, will yield better results, as all the people you send mail to are more likely to buy.
- This type of marketing strategy is familiar – for people who aren’t accustomed to using the Internet, or who don’t understand what online marketing campaigns are, this marketing strategy is easy to understand because it’s familiar. Most adults living today have had some experience opening promotional mail at one time or another. The familiarity of seeing this kind of mail will remind them of that experience, so they come to expect the contents to have something similar. Mail could contain coupons, discounts, vouchers, and other freebies that a long-time customer can be looking forward to.
- Direct mail has a wide variety of formats – you can send just about any kind of promotional item via mail. You can send brochures, catalogues, magazines, postcards, and so much more. Unlike email marketing where you may sometimes be limited to just one type of email at a time, the variety of formats available for direct mail helps keep things fresh and exciting for your audience.
- Actual mail is tangible – this is a given, but some people still prefer it to email and other intangible marketing material. Some people feel more encouraged to buy when they see an actual discount coupon. This holds true for customers aged 50-60 years old who have always known what direct mail does.
These advantages that direct mail marketing has over online marketing make it a strategy worth exploring. The costs are minimal compared to some other types of marketing campaigns, and it yields better results. Try it in tandem with other strategies, and see how it can improve your bottom line.
For a comprehensive discussion of Direct Mail Advertising visit: https://www.bornsgroup.com/advertising-solutions-through-direct-mail/