Clients are often surprised when I recommend direct mail as the best strategy for their businesses. They think it is old-fashioned, ineffective and expensive.
I get it. With the meteoric rise of digital marketing, it’s easy to forget the value and power of “offline” marketing.
But contrary to popular belief, direct mail is alive and well. In fact, it remains -- hands down -- one of the most effective marketing strategies out there. Which is why leading digital marketing agencies highly recommend direct mail as a major part of your marketing mix.
Here are three reasons why direct mail can be a game-changer for your business.
01.Can we get personal?
Sure, you can customize your email marketing, but the hard truth is that many advertisers don’t. They send out mass deals to their entire mailing lists, losing that personalized feel in the process.
With 2.4 billion emails sent every second of every day throughout the world, it’s no wonder that your company’s message gets lost or diluted. Hello, spam file!
Don’t you want your message to stand out?
Technology is king, but as humans we still value (and trust) having a tangible object to hold in our hands; to read and digest. Seniors especially value this, but so do millennials. To that point, 80-90% of direct mail gets opened, while only 20-30% of email gets opened on a good day.
Plus, with computer hacking on the rise, many potential customers shy away from online credit card purchases.
And it all comes back to the personal connection. Small Biz Trends reports that 70% of Americans consider mail more personal than the internet.
Your message is better understood
You’d be hard-pressed to find a person who hasn’t, at one point, read something on a modern computer screen. But the question remains: how much of this info are they actually absorbing?
According to Scientific America, modern screens fail to mimic the tactile experience of reading on paper. Why is this important? Well, it prevents people from navigating long texts in an intuitive way. And in turn, it may inhibit reading comprehension. You see, screens drain more of our mental resources making it harder to remember what we read.
One study shows that direct mail takes 21% less cognitive effort to review and process, and it elicits a much stronger brand recall than digital marketing.
Don’t you want customers to “get” your company’s message and call to action as easily as possible?
A well-crafted, targeted direct mail piece can help achieve this goal.
It gets response!
To state what seems obvious, the main difference between direct mail and digital marketing is that it is tangible. Your customers will feel more of an innate “need” for the goods and services advertised when they come in the form of physical mail.
This is especially true with older Americans. With a physical marketing piece, seniors are more apt to clip out a coupon and put it on the fridge. Or leave it on the coffee table for a spouse to look through. Not true with online offers!
This “keepable” item serves as a constant call to action or reminder. Roughly 66% of people have bought something because of direct mail.
According to the Direct Mail Association (DMA), nearly two-thirds of people have bought something because of a direct mail piece. A compelling direct mail campaign can far exceed your online sales—and deliver better lifetime customer value, too.
I like those odds, and you should too.
With over 25 years’ experience creating winning direct response, I know the devil is in the details. When you hire Doyle Direct, you’re getting a team of expert copywriters, graphic designers, and marketers who can deliver a direct mail campaign that sells. Interested? Drop me a line at Donna@CopyByDoyle.com, and I’ll explain how we can help you.