By Lauren Fenthum<---- To view/save infographic
CLICK HEREOur lives are dominated by smartphones, email, social media and many other digital tools, marketers have evolved and harnessed these tools to their advantage, however it is still the direct approach that keeps consumers interested. Here are some of the reasons why direct mail continues to be relevant in the digital age.
People Like Opening Direct Mail - People receive millions of promotional content every day and this often goes unopened or marked as spam, which means that brands are spending a lot of money on marketing strategies for them to be greatly unnoticed. But this is why direct mail is so important because people enjoy receiving it, which means they are more likely to open it. It feels more personalized and gives the consumer the idea of being on a personal level with the company and not just one of the numbers. The mailer should be informative, concise and easy to read as this leads to a call to action.
Integrates Well With Digital Campaigns - All businesses employ digital marketing tactics in their campaigns; this does not mean that direct mail should take a backseat. Try and combine the two strategies to expand your network and enable a higher conversion.
Direct Mail is Flexible - If you are a new business you can simply tell your target audience about your offerings and start a direct mail campaign that entails distributing coupons to acquaint them with your brand. Similarly, if you are an established brand, you can still use direct mail to reconnect with customers through monthly newsletters.
Paper-Based Marketing Improves Brand Recognition - Direct mail requires 21% less cognitive effort to process than digital media, meaning that it is easier to understand and thus more memorable. Consumers that received direct mail offers were able to recall the brand 75% of the time, amongst consumers that received digital-only materials the brand was remembered 44% of the time.
It Is Easy To Track - Direct mail can be tracked by using unique codes in mailers, once you get a sale using the discount code it can be understood as a result from your campaign.
Direct mail has a wide appeal that cannot be ignored if marketers want to design foolproof marketing strategies that target the majority of their audience. It can reach where digital media cannot, thus making it inclusive and engaging. The last thing progressive businesses want is to miss out on a large customer base by not including direct mail in their marketing strategy.
