How Direct Mail Marketing Has Evolved
The way we market has changed throughout the years with advancements of technology. Now, we can target customers digitally through methods similar to email and website advertisements. With all these shiny new marketing strategies, direct mail may seem slow and out of date.
Contrary to that belief, a look at the statistics shows that direct mail still delivers great results. Based on a recent study, consumers still take direct mail seriously with a 90% open rate compared to the 20% open rate of email.
So, how has direct mail stood the test of time and continued to be a proven marketing strategy? Darwill discusses the evolution and how we utilize data with direct mail to market smarter.
Early Ages of Direct Mail
Before the surge of technology and data, marketers were not collecting information about their customers. Without data collection, brands could not pinpoint their target audience and would send out mass mail to cover everyone. That meant that they were spending money sending mail to people who may not have wanted or liked their product.
Early direct mail marketing focused on the hopes that the consumer receiving your mail would be interested. By mass mailing, companies were spending a lot of money and not seeing as great of a return as they were looking for.
Digital Marketing Takes Over
Over the years, as technology advanced, digital marketing capabilities grew and not only gained the interest of marketers, but also came at a much lower cost. These new formats nearly wiped out the use of mail. Marketers could now easily reach consumers through email, digital newsletters, website advertisements, and more.
Technology quickly took over, and digital marketing was a great way for companies to stay current with the trends and pop up online where their customers were spending most of their time.
What we didn't expect was that the advancement in technology and data would also benefit direct mail.
Data Becomes Advantageous for Direct Mail
Thankfully with the improvements of technology, direct mail became more effective with its capabilities of reaching the right target at the right time. Data collection has allowed direct mail to become sophisticated and thorough. Instead of sending mass mail with only demographic and geographic qualifiers, we can market smarter, get more targeted and cut costs of mailing to people who do not look like your current customers.
With data collection, marketers can look at consumer data to determine who should receive mail and personalize it to each customer journey. Through data, we can also understand consumers’ interests and customize mail to their needs, so they are more likely to engage with it.
The ability to track direct mail has also improved. Not only can we track when the piece will arrive in-home, but now we can also add elements to mail that push the consumer to engage and hang onto the piece longer. Unique links, phone numbers, QR codes, location maps, and coupon offerings all increase engagement rates. These elements help marketers to see where a consumer is in the buying process. For example, if a consumer visits the unique link on their mail piece, we can see that they are interested in learning more about a product. From this link, we can also track their website usage and see if they completed a sale.
Leveraging data to better target direct mail improves consumer profiles and helps marketers gain insight into what mail works the best.
How Darwill Uses Data with Direct Mail
Darwill’s in-house data science team is dedicated to collecting data, analyzing your customer file, and building customer profiles. With data, we can find your top customers and build predictive models to target prospects similar to your current customers. Finding you new customers that are most likely to convert and offer the best return on investment.
We create customized, targeted mailing lists and provide valuable segmentation for appropriate messaging across audiences for increased personalization and conversion.
Darwill also crafts direct mail testing strategies to see what format, messaging, imagery, or offers works best for your audience. We’ll help you measure the success of your campaign through custom reporting and walk you through how to interpret the data and make future direct mail recommendations.
Direct Mail Excites Consumers
Direct mail is bouncing back and exciting consumers. We are seeing a rise in consumer appreciation for direct mail as they become over-saturated with digital marketing. Consumers are again looking forward to opening their mailboxes and receiving personalized messages. 59% of US consumers enjoy getting mail from brands about new products.
Personalized mail is a great way to stand out from digital and connect with your customer. Customized messages to the consumers’ interest create brand trust and positively impact sales. Direct mail recipients purchased 28% more items and spent 28% more money than people who didn’t get that piece of direct mail.
Not only are consumers excited to receive mail, but a recent study has shown that advertising mail is kept in a household for 17 days on average. This statistic is important for marketers because they can send offers through the mail that will be kept in-home longer whereas email offers often go unread or sent to spam.
Direct Mail Remains Relevant
The statistics show that marketers need to consider re-investing in direct mail. Combining direct mail and digital marketing will achieve the highest results compared to using one without the other.
Need help getting started? Darwill circulates over 400 million pieces of direct mail per year. We are a full-service partner who can execute every aspect of your direct marketing campaign and have vast knowledge across many industries. Because direct mail remains the highest-converting media channel for consumers, it’s the foundation of our multi-channel strategy. Our Direct Mail process is to analyze, produce, then test. Contact us to get started today.
