How to Increase Leads With Direct Mail Outs
Digital channels have now firmly captured the attention of both older and younger generations. With smartphones, tablets, and computers all around us, it’s becoming increasingly hard to escape the grasp of social media, messaging apps, and video streaming programs. Therefore, if you’re a business owner trying to promote your products or services to a local audience, digital marketing is absolutely essential.
That said, it’s important to not ignore other aspects of marketing. Direct mail marketing is still very much a viable strategy.
Since digital channels are now becoming increasingly saturated, it can be beneficial for a small business to put a bit more effort into their traditional marketing campaigns. It’s a great way to stand out from the droves of businesses trying to compete for search rankings or social media engagement.
In this blog, we’re going to discuss how successful direct mail marketing can be in the modern age. After that, we’ll go through the steps that you can take to integrate direct mail into your overall marketing strategy.
How Effective is Direct Mail Marketing?
Research conducted by Deloitte found that digital fatigue is becoming more and more prominent among consumers. In 2021, their survey found that around a one-third of participating consumers reported that they feel overwhelmed by all the digital channels available.
This kind of digital fatigue may also lead to frustration, confusion and perhaps even indifference. Needless to say, marketing to digitally fatigued consumers can be a tough uphill battle indeed.
On the contrary, physical mail seems to evoke feelings of enthusiasm in both older and younger consumers. According to USPS, 72% of Gen Z research participants said they feel excited whenever they get physical mail. The same survey found that 71% of Gen X believes that physical mail feels more personal and that Millennials perceive physical letters as more trustworthy than an email or other forms of digital messaging.
The response rates for direct mail also echo these sentiments. According to articles from Neil Patel and Mailchimp, direct mail has a higher ROI compared to paid search and online display ads.
Additionally, direct mail was found to be just as effective as social media marketing, with an ROI of 29%. This is a mere 1% lower than social media’s ROI.
How to Integrate Direct Mail into Your Marketing Strategy
Now that you understand how effective direct mail can be, it’s time to work it into your overall marketing strategy.
When it comes to developing a successful direct mail marketing campaign, there are few things that you need to consider:
- Using Eye-catching Envelopes
In direct mail marketing, the first thing that the recipients are going to see is the envelope. Think of the envelope as an email heading or as a YouTube thumbnail. It’s what’s going to determine whether or not a potential customer is going to open your letter.
Because of this, it’s important to give some thought to the envelope’s design.
One way to ensure that your letters stand out from the regular mail. You can do this in a multitude of ways:
– Change the shape of the envelope by making it taller and/or wider
– Use custom-printed envelopes with eye-catching patterns and logos
– Change the colour of the envelope itself
– Use a different material like glossy paper or matte card
– Add a personal touch to the envelope like a custom seal
When designing your envelope, it’s also important to think about your branding and your intended audience.
For example, if you sell luxury products and sell to an audience that values elegance, it’s important to make sure that your envelopes are classy and simple. In this case, a minimalistic black envelope with fine golden lettering might be more suitable than a colourful one. - Having Something to Offer
Once you’ve designed the perfect envelope, it’s important to have something worthy of attention within that envelope.
Generally speaking, you should consider including something that requires a response or an action. It could be a survey sheet, a limited-time discount coupon, a discount code, information about an upcoming event, a membership card, and so on.
If the consumer knows that something worthy of attention is in the envelope, they will be more likely to open it. You can let the recipient know that something is in the envelope by providing information on the front or by having something physically tangible within the envelope.
Having something to offer in your mail campaigns will also make your customers more likely to open your letters in the future as well. - A Clear and Upfront CTA
Another important part of your direct mail marketing strategy is your call-to-action (CTA). A great CTA makes it clear to consumers what they should do next and makes it easier for them to move down to the next stage of the sales funnel.
General CTAs include ‘get started’, ‘learn more’, ‘buy now’, ‘sign up’, and so on. More creative CTAs include ‘get paid for your plays’ from SoundCloud and ‘ride and save’ from Lyft.
Here are the common features of a well-designed CTA:
– Clear and concise
– Easily visible
– Action-oriented
– Creates urgency
Another thing to consider is how the CTA is placed within the context of the other features in your letter. Is it being eclipsed by an image? Is it clashing with other CTAs? Is it being buried under a block of text?
Whether it’s in physical form or on a digital page, it’s important to ensure that your CTA stands out. - Directing Your Readers Back to Your Digital Channels
No matter how amazing your direct mail campaign is, it’s important to properly direct the recipients to your main digital channels. You can do this by having a QR code on the letter or just by listing your website URL or your social media pages. Whatever your method might be, it’s essential to make the process as easy as possible.
This omnichannel approach increases your pool of leads, which in turn, leads to an increase in traffic and sales.
Every once in a while, we should all enjoy a respite from the world dominated by bright screens and digital text. Direct mail marketing is one way local businesses can offer a refreshing sight to digitally fatigued consumers.
