Whatever your business or the marketing message you would like to put out there, you might be wondering what the best way is to reach your customers. What is the best method to get the most return on your investment? Well, today most business have gone digital, and their marketing is based heavily online. This includes email marketing, social media advertising, paid search marketing, and sponsored ads.
But what of Direct Mail Marketing? Is it gone completely, or is it possibly still a great way to disperse your message?
Keep reading to find out.
Does Direct Mail Marketing Still Work?
The simple answer is, yes. Direct mail advertising is still very much alive and thriving. But to do it right and get the most return on your investment, and turn potential customers into hard sales, you must have the right strategy.
Interestingly, direct mail has a high ROI- only slightly behind social media and email. Direct mail is also more likely to turn into sales than email marketing. Direct mail connects to people on a personal level.
The best marketing campaigns combine direct mail with digital marketing to get the best results and encourage action. But direct mail on its own is still very powerful.
Here, we discuss the best ways to utilize direct mail campaigns for your business.
10 Reasons to use Direct Mail Marketing
- Direct mail can reach a wider audience. Older people are more likely to get mail than to have email, and younger people these days feel that physical mail is personal, and see email as mainly spam. Direct mail also reaches a whole household instead of just one person, and is more likely to be seen and talked about among groups of people or family members.
- People like getting mail and reading letters. 57% of people said that getting mail makes them feel valued. By adding a personal touch like a handwritten note or even just a written signature, people are more likely to read it.
- Direct mail is a physical reminder, especially if it includes a special offer, and people will save it for future use. They may hang it on their fridge or put it in a pile with other offers, and will recall it when the need arises. It is memorable.
- People use emotions when making purchases, so be sure to create an emotional connection with your customers to get a sale. If you are selling pet supplies, using a picture of a cute puppy will draw people in. Think of ways to trigger emotions.
- Since less people are doing direct marketing these days, you can stand out from the crowd. Imagine an email inbox inundated with email, but not many friendly postcards or brochures filling up a mailbox. Among all the spam and bills, your mailing will definitely jump out and cause people to look.
- You can have fun with it, be creative and interesting, using compelling or humorous visuals to accompany your message. Some examples of this are: to promote World Water Day, a marketing company sent out a direct mailer with a hidden message that only became visible when held under water. Another clever company, ADT Security, executed a campaign with cardboard boxes that had rubber bands inside which popped up into a box when triggered. They slipped these flat boxes under people’s doors, and when someone walked to their front door (inside their house) they saw a box that said, “Breaking into your apartment is easier than you think.” Scary, but effective.
- Keep it trackable- use unique phone numbers and landing pages for each specific campaign, with a very direct call to action so you can easily track how many customers followed through and how many sales you made.
- Direct mail is physical, which makes it more likely that people will remember your brand through visualization. Even if they don’t follow up right away, or they throw the mailer out, in the future they will more easily recall your brand name and logo.
- Direct mail can be very targeted and effective with the right tools, and by knowing your audience. But be precise and personal, and target the right audience. Don’t just send junk mail, but do a lot of research and send out treasures, not trash.
- Keep the text brief, use clean and modern layouts that are easy to read, and be sure to include eye-catching photography. Limit your campaigns to keep it special, like follow-ups for first time customers, or special offers for birthdays.
You can use USPS Every Door Direct Mail program to identify the demographics of the people you want to reach. You can even do different campaigns targeted to different groups of people.
But whatever you do, make sure it is memorable, fun and interactive, personal, and evokes emotions in your customers.
Which brings us to our next point.
The Best Colors for Direct Mail
There’s actual science behind what colors appeal to people more. When it comes to colors that increase sales, read the guide below to find the best color envelope for direct mail campaigns, or for postcards and brochures.
Ever watched a courtroom drama TV show where the lawyer tells the defendant to wear blue to court? That’s because blue stands for security, peace, and reliability, and promotes trust in company’s products and services. Blue is also the color most preferred by males.
Green is a soothing color, and evokes feelings of power, nature and tranquility. Green is a great color to promote health, environmentally friendly products, and spas.
Red is a very bold and powerful color, and should be used sparingly. It is also a color associated with romance, and can be used to promote deals that target couples.
Yellow evokes feelings of joy and optimism, but it can be hard on the eyes. Use it as an accent rather than the main focus.
Purple is best associated with problem solving and creativity. It is also known to represent royalty, and is most often used to appeal to women.
Orange grabs attention, and represents warmth, energy and enthusiasm. But it can also be seen as aggressive, so use it minimally.
If you’ve been wondering about the connection between color meaning and how people make decisions, now you know which direct mail colors will best stand out, and the optimal envelopes that get attention for the type of campaigns you are running.
Printing Direct Mail Postcards
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Postcards are a highly effective and very affordable way to get your message out there. It is a quick and easy way to share important information, and a catchy way to reach new customers. Postcards are great for many industries, especially business postcards, and custom postcards and invitations.
With postcards, you’ll want to use striking visuals on the front, and keep your message short but powerful. It also helps to highly personalize your postcard printing, using as specific customer information as possible. To maximize the effectiveness of your direct mail printing, it is best to send multiple campaigns. Combined with email marketing, it may take between 3-9 times to turn a potential customer into an existing customer. So don’t give up after one try, or you won’t see results. |
We offer 4×6, 5×7 and 6×9, which is considered small, medium and standard size postcards. The 4×6 is considered an actual ‘postcard’ size by the USPS, and is most effective for simple and straightforward designs. The 6×9 is very popular for campaigns, and can be printed vertical, horizontal, or both. It is also larger than a standard envelope so will stand out among the rest of the mail.
Whichever size you choose for your campaign, we use fine cardstock and the highest quality ink to make your design stand out.
Envelope Marketing
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Envelopes are the first thing your customers will see when mailing invitations, announcements, photos, letters, statements, invoices, bills, business memos and many more. When sending out direct mail marketing, you can use the envelope as an advertisement itself, to increase the likeliness of it being opened.
While business envelopes are blank white and generally have nothing but the address printed on it, direct mail envelopes are more personalized, and customizable. Custom printed envelopes deliver ready-made branding, and printing on envelopes such as your company logo or slogan is a great way to stand out at first glance. For extra fancy personalized envelopes you can add embossing or a foil stamping to emphasize something special is inside. |
You can also add a hook or a teaser message on the outside of the envelope, to encourage recipients to open it up and read what’s inside. It’s great to use colorful envelopes instead of white, and our variety of colored envelopes will stand out more in your campaign. Include a clear call-to-action on the back flap, by including a discount code or a link to your website.
There are many original ways you can stand out in your direct mailing, and this includes the type of paper you use, the envelopes you pack it in, the cardstock you use for your postcards, and so many more choices. FineCardStock is here to ensure your marketing campaign is a raging success.