Insider Intelligence recently reported the budget allocations of marketers in the U.S. Social media and television tied for first place, with each accounting for 19% of total marketing budgets spent. Among other prominent marketing channels, direct mail was farther down the list at 9% of marketing expenditures. However, research has shown that direct mail has a disproportionate impact on consumer behavior.
This blog will explore the impact of direct mail on consumers and how it functions as a critical component of an integrated marketing strategy in the digital age.
Omnichannel marketing is here to stay and there is data to back it up. According to Lob and Comperemedia, 31% of consumers are more likely to engage with a brand when they receive multiple types of communication.
Interestingly, the role direct mail plays in this omnichannel marketing strategy appears to far outweigh the 9% of marketing budget spent on it:
These natural attributes of direct mail are especially powerful when aligned with other marketing tactics. The USPS® drew upon the same Lob and Comperemedia data sources to highlight how direct mail and digital marketing tactics work best when they work together.
Mailpieces connect the physical and digital worlds when used to complement websites. For example, a postcard mailer can alert a customer that they have unpurchased items sitting in an online shopping cart.
Another tactic is to incorporate a QR code into the mailpiece that links the customer to a website via mobile device. Different QR codes can be used to promote different offers to different customer segments. These custom QR codes are easily tracked and measured, providing a rich source of response and ROI data.
PURLS are yet another alternative. A “personalized URL” can be printed onto a mailpiece that directs the customer to a unique website landing page, allowing you to market to customers on a one-to-one basis. Here again, the consumer response and behavior data made possible by PURLs is tremendously valuable to the marketer for analytics.
Emails can be timed to coordinate with mail delivery dates, alerting the customer to watch for a promotion or offer that is on its way to their physical mailbox. As one example, USPS Informed Delivery® emails the customer a digital image of the mailpiece before it’s delivered.
USPS Informed Visibility® takes this concept one step further. With Informed Visibility, the sender is informed when mailpieces reach their target audience. This information, in turn, can be used to trigger highly targeted paid social media ads that directly relate to the mailpieces and the customers who received them.
Text messages are known for high open rates and customer engagement. That subsequent engagement does not have to be digital, however. A marketing offer delivered via text can be used to trigger a direct mail package that is personalized to the tastes and preferences of the recipient.
Taylor is one of the most sophisticated providers of direct mail services in the nation, printing and mailing more than two billion pieces each year. Everything needed for a high-performing direct mail campaign is available through Taylor, whether that campaign is used as a standalone tactic or as part of a larger omnichannel approach: