There are many options available to market your product or service in today’s digital age. Digital marketing is any marketing effort that uses the internet. Standard channels include SEM, SEO, email marketing and banner ads.
Direct mail marketing can seem outdated with all the options available. Direct mail is still a powerful way to connect with prospects on a personal level.
This blog will review direct mailing services and their benefits compared to marketing tactics. It can help you decide if direct mail should be included in your budget for the next campaign.
What is Direct Mail Marketing?
Direct mail marketing is any type of physical promotion that a company sends via the U.S. Direct mail marketing is the practice of sending physical promotional materials through the U.S. Postal Service or another delivery service directly to clients or prospects in their homes or offices. Direct mail can include postcards, catalogs coupons, flyers and product samples.
What are Direct Mail Services (DMS)?
Direct mail services are provided by any company that prints, prepares materials for mailing and delivers direct mail to customers or clients. Direct mail services are provided by USPS and independent direct mailing companies serving local and national clients.
Printing and Direct Mail Services Offer Many Benefits:
They’re Cost-Effective
Printing and direct mail are relatively inexpensive compared to other forms marketing and advertising. Direct mail marketing is cost effective, so it’s easy to test different campaigns and approaches using both digital and direct mail services.
The cost of postage is dependent on the number pieces that you send out in a campaign. Therefore, the more pieces sent in an area targeted by the campaign can reduce the costs.
It’s Personal
Direct mail is at its most advanced today. Personalization means more than just printing the name of a customer or prospect on a postcard or Letter Mailers. You can now personalize direct mail campaigns using any information you have on your customer or prospect. Personalizing your direct marketing campaigns can make them more effective and increase your brand’s equity. According Canon Solutions America personalizing direct mail pieces with the recipient’s name can increase response by as much as 44%. Personalizing with a full-color image and content, and personalizing by adding a name can also increase response by up to 135%.
These tools allow for precise audience targeting
Digital campaigns are unable to provide the same level of audience segmentation as direct mail. Direct mail campaigns allow you to be granular. You can choose to target your campaigns by a variety of categories.
- Geographic (cities, zip codes and neighborhoods)
- Demographics (age, income, education and other factors)
- Psychographic (Interests and values, preferences and others).
Here are a few examples. You can target multiple categories simultaneously, depending on how you develop your list. Being strategically minded about your direct mailing campaigns and how you segment them and target them will bring you many benefits. For example, you can reach the right audiences and attract new customers with no huge investment in advertising.
It’s Scalable
Scalability is one of the biggest benefits of Bulk Mailing Services. Digital marketing is initially cheaper, but only up to a point. You will need to switch to a targeted medium to connect, acquire and retain customers as you scale your business. Direct mail campaigns offer something digital can’t. This is a channel which allows you to scale up your marketing efforts reliably and with flexibility. You can then integrate it into your growth strategy.
It’s Easy to Measure
Some marketing and advertisement campaigns are easier than others to measure. It is virtually impossible to measure the success of an advertising billboard placed on a highway. Direct mail is much easier to measure, especially when coupons, discount codes and unique phone number are included.
