What Are the Benefits of Direct Mail Marketing?
- Written by News Co Media
Do you think that you're stuck to advertising online in today's digital world? The good news is that you aren't.
Direct mail is alive and well in the advertising world. In fact, there's still $38.5 billion spent every year in direct mail spending.
If you haven't gotten into direct mail marketing details yet, this post will help you get started. Below are several advertising benefits that direct mail brings.
Improved Targeting
There is a lot of data you can use with online advertising. You can segment your advertising lists by demographics, interests, and online activity. What's harder to do is segment your targeting list by exact location.
Direct mail gives you the ability to be precise with the people you want to receive your ads.
Take a local coffee shop, for instance. Yes, you want to target coffee lovers. The problem with doing this online is that it's harder to target the people who live in your shop's proximity.
With direct mail, you can dictate the general area that receives your advertising. You can also use things like age, sex, and other demographic information during this process. You just get the added benefit of finding people who are more likely to visit your business.
Grab More Attention
It's hard to get attention on the internet these days. Consumers are inundated with advertising from all sides. Most people have learned how to tune marketing material out.
The same isn't true with direct mail. People still enjoy getting and opening mail. In most cases, your open rates will be far higher for your direct mail ads than they would be for something like email marketing.
Even if your audience doesn't take action, it's still worth the effort. The more people see information about your company, the more likely they'll be to buy from you in the future.
Save Money
Yes, the internet has made it easy to reach customers. At the same time, that also means every company out there will try and take advantage of that access to promote their businesses.
The popularity of online advertising has caused online advertising costs to go through the roof. You can't launch any large-scale ad campaigns today without losing money in the beginning. You'll need to stay in the negative until you gather enough data to optimize your campaigns.
That isn't as big of a deal with direct mail advertising. Since there is less competition in the mailbox, prices are still affordable. You can launch targeted campaigns and get a better return on your investment while doing it.
Personalize Your Mail
There's only so much personalization you can do with online advertising. You have access to your audience's demographics and interests so that you can be a little specific. However, there's no way for you to talk directly to people.
That's different with direct mail. You can personalize each piece of mail you send out to speak directly with people. You can do this with variable printing.
With a variable printing press, you provide your marketing content to your print shop. Once your print provider has your content, they can personalize each print with variables. These variables can be names, images, coupon codes, and anything else you can think of.
Contact a printing shop like Team Concept Printing commercial printing to see what other benefits variable printing offers.
Track Your Campaigns
People don't often think of tracking when they consider direct mail campaigns. They're used to all the tracking capabilities that online advertising has to offer. Luckily, there are plenty of tracking capabilities for direct mail.
Tracking can also be more straightforward than online advertising. With online ads, you rely on tracking scripts and data dashboards to analyze your data. With direct mail, you can handle this with a simple coupon code.
You can also combine digital and physical advertising campaigns. You can include QR codes for your customers to scan on your mail. Doing this can move your customers to your website, invite them to an email list, or any other online activity you wish to happen.
Be Memorable
You only have so much screen real estate with digital ads. In most cases, your ad takes up a small portion of a user's screen. This limits your ability to develop creative and memorable ads.
You don't have this limitation with direct mail. You can customize your direct mail messages as much as you like.
If you want to stick with a simple envelope, you're only limited by the weight of your package. You can create colorful illustrations, include coupons, and anything else you desire.
If you want to make a more significant impact, you can send more bulky packages. Doing this gives you a way to tell potential customers what your company has to offer. Since people are more likely to open physical mail, people will get more of a chance to learn about your business.
Build Trust
The internet has done wonders for bringing new opportunities to businesses. An individual can get up and start a store online with a few clicks of the button. The problem comes from distinguishing great companies from shady marketers.
There isn't as much of a trust issue with direct mail. When a potential customer holds a piece of mail in their hand, they feel more connected with that company.
When you see a physical address for a company, it shows that they're real. This makes it more likely that a potential customer takes a chance and buys from your company.
The Time to Start Direct Mail Marketing Is Today
You don't always have to jump on the next digital marketing trend to advertise your business. Direct mail marketing is still a tried and true method to get your business's name out into the world. Start your first direct mail campaign today to see the benefits for yourself.
If you're looking for more business tips and news, head back to our blog. Our blog has the information you need to improve your company.
