Direct mail is dead. Long live direct mail!
It may feel like the majority of businesses are jumping to online marketing channels such as social media and abandoning traditional channels like direct mail, but there’s still room in your marketing toolbox for a personalised postcard marketing campaign.
There’s a lot of business owners that take for granted a truth that is just plain wrong: Direct mail is dead. When in actual fact, sending physical mail to prospects and customers can actually work, and the ROI can be significant.
Think about it, how many postcard mailers do you receive each week? Probably not as many as you used to a few years ago right?
Does this mean that it’s no longer effective? Not at all. While digital marketing hogs the headlines, direct mail is making a comeback, which represents a massive opportunity for the businesses that do it right.
Now we’re not telling you to go buy a local mailing list and spam the crap out of it (while we’re on the subject of mailing lists, before launching any direct mail campaign you will want to make sure you’re not including anyone who’s asked not to receive direct mailing using the Mail Preference Service). That doesn’t do anybody any favours and will likely paint your brand in a bad light with potential prospects.
No, instead you need to be smart, a targetted approach will outperform a blanket approach any day of the week.
Get the most from your next direct mail campaign…
Too many business owners sacrifice clarity for cleverness. You’re not looking to win a design award.
Your main goals for a postcard campaign are to get prospects picking up the phone, visiting your website, or visiting your business location. So establish your goals and make sure your message is crystal clear.
Take a laser-guided approach
Whether you’re purchasing a list or using your own, postcard campaigns live and die by the quality of their mailing list.
Segment your list into buckets.
By breaking your list into smaller chunks, you can create a design with your audience in mind and craft a very specific message and offer that will resonate with your prospective customer and increase the chances of them taking action—even if you have fewer people on it.
Cut the fluff
There’s always the temptation to cram as much information as possible on to your postcard. Communicate what problem you solve immediately. Cut out the fluff and get straight to the point. Keep the design simple, use power words to grab attention, present a strong offer and call to action, and highlight the benefits of your business, product, or service.
Want to take your postcard marketing campaign to the next level?
OK, so you’ve created a winning design and killer offer that you are confident will grab your prospects attention and get them taking action. So why not enhance your campaign by blending it with online technologies?
By directing prospective customers to your website address on your postcard you can utilise remarketing techniques to continue to serve your message across multiple digital channels.
How we hear you cry? Well, we won’t go too deep into remarketing or how to get set up just yet, but in a nutshell here’s how it works:
You’re prospect lands on your website and a tracking cookie is saved by their web browser. Then as they browse the internet, they will see your ad pop up on various sites.
Have you ever visited a website and then noticed their ad appear when you’re next on Facebook? That right there is remarketing in action.
The ads can be designed just like the postcard, so your branding and message stays consistent when it makes the jump from print to digital, and dramatically increases your chances of that person taking action.
If you’re interested to learn more about retargetting and would like some help getting this set up, give us a call today.
