In an increasingly digital world, direct mail seems old and boring.
Direct mail feels outdated.
But direct mail is still a great way to reach your audience, grab their attention, and connect with them on a personal level.
The Data & Marketing Association reported that the direct mail customer response rate increased by 43% in recent years. Even better, the prospect response rate increased by 190%.
Direct mail is still effective, and using it is a game-changer for any serious business person.
Here are 5 reasons why direct mail still rocks!
1. Direct Mail has a High ROI
Would it surprise you if I said that direct mail gives you more bang for your buck than paid search and online display ads?
Well, it does.
Direct mail has a median ROI of 29%, putting the ROI in third behind email and social media marketing in terms of ROI. Social media is ahead by only 1 percentage point.
That might not seem very high, but when you consider that paid search has an ROI of 23% and online display at 16%, that number looks a lot more attractive.
Are you curious about what your direct-mail ROI could become?
2. Direct Mail Works Great with a Digital Marketing Strategy
Every great marketing strategy uses multiple channels.
Smart marketers wouldn’t run only Facebook Ads and call it a day.
They’d consider running Instagram ads, do paid search campaigns, and even use search engine optimization to increase traffic.
While you shouldn’t invest only in direct mail, you should consider it part of your marketing bag of tricks.
3. Direct Mail is Easier to Target Than You Might Think
On social media, targeting your audience is dead simple. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter all offer tons of targeting tools based on interests, demographics, even behavior.
Although Direct Mail doesn’t offer this laser like precision you can still target specific streets, towns, demographics such as age, income, and more.
4. Direct Mail is Trackable
Technically, there is no automatic way to track direct mail response rates, ROI, and general engagement. Unlike a Facebook ad, you can’t track that the user went from your ad to your product page.
Maybe a customer visits your website after seeing your direct-mail piece. While this person would count as a lead from your website, they should be a lead from your direct-mail campaign.
But wait, I just said direct mail is trackable.
It’s a little more complex, but tracking direct mail is totally doable.
Here are a few tricks you can use to find out how well your direct-mail campaign is working.
First, if your goal is to get someone to call you, choose a unique phone number for that direct-mail campaign.
Similar to this, if your goal is to get people to visit your website, you can create a unique landing page to track your results.
When people visit or click on the landing page, you’ll know that they came from that direct-mail campaign.
Whatever CTA you choose for your direct mail campaign, use a unique tracking device, whether that is a phone number or website URL.
Then, you can count it as a lead from your direct-mail campaign.
5. Direct Mail is Tangible
Imagine this. You receive a coupon in the mail for $10 off your next meal at your favorite local restaurant.
If you’re like me, you set the coupon on your refrigerator for future use.
Then, you pretty much forget about it. For the next few weeks, the coupon sits in your kitchen with other unused direct-mail offers.
But one night, your buddy calls and wants to watch the big game at a restaurant. As you’re trying to decide where to go, you remember, “Oh! I have a coupon.”
And at that moment, the coupon decides for you.
Even though the coupon is for just $10.
You could do the same thing with a haircut business.
Since direct mail is tangible, it sticks around. It clutters physical space.
Email is easy to forget about because it’s just a number on a screen.
As a general rule of thumb, about two percent of online advertisements garner our attention each day. In other words, only about 100 out of every 5,000 ad exposures have any meaningful impact on consumers.
But direct mail is unavoidable.
About 66% of people have purchased a product because of direct mail.
If your direct mail piece has a special offer, most people will save it for future use, and then they won’t be able to forget about it.
Source Blog / Direct Mail: 13 Reasons Why It Isn’t Dead
Neil Patel
