Combining Direct Mail with Multi-Channel Marketing

Direct mail + multi-channel marketing

For decades, direct mail advertising has been committed to helping marketers reach and acquire new customers. As an offline marketing channel, it still has unique advantages that other media cannot compare with: higher response rates; attracting recipients through senses (visual, auditory, tactile, and olfactory).

Especially when combined with multi-channel marketing, direct mail becomes a more powerful tool to establish and deepen customer relationships, and also increases the chances of marketing activities to succeed. Many consumers hope that brands can interact with them both offline and online, because it is convenient for them to contact the brand anytime and anywhere.

Multi-channel marketing refers to advertising information being published in multiple media channels. Through this strategy, customers can choose the experience they want from different channels, which also turns customers into the center of attention. Whether it’s visiting a website, shopping at a physical store, or checking mail, it has become a part of the customer’s buying journey.

According to a study by Microsoft, the average human attention span is only 8 seconds. If your activity runs on only one channel, you only have one chance to attract consumers’ attention; but if you use a multi-channel strategy, there will be more opportunities to convey information and reach potential customers.

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The following are several ways to incorporate direct mail into a multi-channel marketing strategy:

Combine direct mail with IP targeting

An IP address is a location-based identifier associated with any device connected to the internet.

By combining direct mail with IP targeting, marketers can send offline mail and corresponding online digital ads to the same recipient, providing personalized marketing content to desktop or mobile devices based on the user’s physical location.

A study by the Royal Mail in the UK found that 92% of people engage with online or digital activities directly as a result of receiving direct mail. Therefore, while your ultimate conversion may happen online, you can drive customers there by using direct mail.

This method is primarily used to establish brand awareness and a sense of trust with the recipient through direct mail advertising, thereby increasing the likelihood of the recipient opening and viewing the email. Recipients can also directly jump to digital advertising to receive information on promotional activities through information such as QR codes and URLs in direct mail.

Either way, the combination of these two channels can increase response rates by over 200%.

Combining direct mail with social media

Nowadays, 72% of the population uses social media, with some spending 3-4 hours per day on just Facebook and Instagram alone.

Facebook alone has over 750 million active users, and marketers need to spend a lot of time and resources trying to attract potential customers on this platform and other social media platforms.

While social media is a good way to increase brand awareness, attract customers, and conduct market research, opportunities will be missed if social media is not combined with direct mail.

For example, you can use social media to create excitement for upcoming direct mail promotional activities; add social media icons and accounts to your direct mail design to encourage customer participation and sharing; or place ads on social media to see which ones work best to ensure that your direct mail campaign delivers the right content.

Combining direct mail with email

There is no denying the effectiveness of email, but it is not the best channel for higher response rates.

The data shows that the response rate for direct mail is 13 times higher than that of email alone, but the combined response rate reaches 27%.

For retailers, the combination of direct mail and email is a perfect solution for those customers who have added products to their shopping carts but haven’t made a purchase. You can first send them an email, and then send personalized postcards with product-related discounts to those who haven’t opened the email.

Many brands also include email addresses in their direct mail, providing customers with multiple ways to contact them. The mailer can test the feedback from direct mail and email to determine the potential customer response rate and response time.

Another value of this combination is that it allows marketers to 100% control the timing and consistency of the message, maximizing the accuracy of the test.

When direct mail is used in combination with other channels, it can strengthen marketing effectiveness and provide valuable data to help create better campaigns in the future. Here are some ideas to help you get started:

Use social data to filter target audiences: Users who are generally active on social media are willing to share their preferences or lifestyles online, and you can collect this data (needs, hobbies, characteristics, topics browsed, etc.) by targeting users who interact with your online ads.

Use social insights to determine future strategies: There are a series of tools related to social media that can help you locate, classify, and refine your audience. For example, check the demographic statistics to track which information and designs resonate with your audience, and then apply these findings to direct mail and digital marketing work.

Use mailing lists to create more targeted advertising content: By filtering and classifying mailing lists, you can develop personalized marketing campaigns based on your target audience.

Recommended reading: How to target personalized direct mail marketing

Recommended reading: Different types of mailing lists in direct mail marketing

A multi-channel strategy is the best way to deliver highly targeted information to the right audience at the right time, which is the key to turning good marketing campaigns into successful ones. Combining the physical and emotional impact of direct mail with rational digital advertising can drive responses from potential customers and ultimately achieve a perfect match.

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