Hayley Homeowner is on her laptop at her kitchen table after work. She’s multitasking: checking social media, scrolling through email, going through the day’s mail, and she has the local news on TV. She deletes promotional emails without even opening them, scrolls past ads on social media without noticing them, mutes the tv when the commercials come on. But in her stack of mail is a well-designed, professionally printed 6×9 direct mail postcard from your company. It catches her eye, she’s enticed by the message, and she sets it aside to consider later or to discuss with her spouse. You’ve just won the battle for the customer’s attention.
The first step in making a sale
You can’t win a consumer’s business if you don’t first get their attention. As the volume of digital ads has grown, consumers have gotten increasingly proficient at ignoring them. Marketing emails are directed to the spam folder. The CAN-SPAM Act requires that consumers have the ability to easily opt out of or unsubscribe to emails. Even TV ads have to survive the mute or fast-forward button on the remote.
A (Somewhat) Surprising Way to Get Noticed
Direct mail, however, occupies a unique space, particularly in recent years, as digital advertising has become more popular. United States Postal Service statistics indicate that the total volume of mail has declined by more than 30% since 2006, dwindling to an average of 2 pieces of mail per day. With consumers having less mail to sort through, businesses have the opportunity to stand out from the crowd. Direct mail is a consistent leader in helping companies acquire new customers.
What’s Different About Direct Mail?
In the rush to digital marketing, some companies lost sight of the importance of tangibility. There’s a big difference in how human beings perceive text and images on the screen versus their perception of a printed piece that they can touch and hold. Naomi Baron researched the difference between reading on a screen and reading in print. She found that not only is print “easier on the eyes,” it’s also “less likely to encourage multitasking.” In fact, 67% of participants in her study indicated that they tend to multitask while reading on a screen. In addition, marketing in print is connected to better recall and stimulates higher brain activity.
What About Personalization?
One of the big selling points for digital marketing is the ability to target consumers in a very precise way and personalize ads with the recipient’s name, demographic information, interests, preferences, and previous purchase history. However, variable data technology allows companies to include the same type of personalization in direct mail campaigns. Including a person’s name on a direct mail piece can increase the response rate by up to 135%, and when additional personalized information is included, response rates can increase by as much as 500%.
Print and Digital Can Work Together
Sending an offer to a customer who has abandoned their online basket can be effective. Unfortunately, as with other types of email marketing, these offers frequently go unnoticed or unread. On the other hand, data indicate that customers who are sent a direct mail offer within 24 hours of abandoning their online basket have a conversion rate of 40%. That compares to only 16% conversion for those receiving an email offer. In addition, you can make it easy for new customers to visit your website by including a QR code in your direct mail piece that they can simply scan with their smartphone.
Credibility and Trust
Finally, sending a direct mail postcard indicates to new customers that your business is legitimate and can be trusted. Anyone can buy a domain name and set up a free email marketing account, but companies that put the effort into designing a direct mail campaign are seen as more trustworthy.