Direct Mail Archives

Targeted, direct and relevant.

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Almost sounds utopian but highly achievable. But yet small businesses still use scattergun approaches to marketing, in the hope of a big return.

What happens when you get something which isn’t relevant to you, you ignore it. If it’s impersonal it too gets ignored. So why the ignorance or your potential customers and customers? Are you just being lazy? Would you respond if someone shouted “Oi! You!” In the street – not likely.

The levels of message absorption in marketing materials are on a downward slide. Due to the high volumes of digital content, people just cannot remember it. Or it just doesn’t strike an accord with them. You want a meaningful customer journey; however, the use of selected channels doesn’t reap the return. Blasting out messages which just don’t get seen or heard seems to be a small given factor in some cases. Looking at our digital profiles, we get plenty of hits, however, the conversion to actual clients is nothing to write home about.

Business is about relationships. No one starts a meaning relationship digitally, how many online dating swipes, either way, dismissing without any validated reason. It’s about reputation, trust and referral. People like people like themselves, commonality, humanity is at the heart of all of us. So why do we try to start a meaningful relationship with so little engagement?

As printers, we haven’t forgotten the power of physicality in marketing. We do networking, we regularly call and chat with people (yes on the phone, not a chat-box), and we aim to inspire our audience with the physical presence print offers. We know we gain clients when it’s a proper relationship. (Proper might have something to do with us being based in Yorkshire) A large percentage of our work comes from referral, we wouldn’t have household names like The Scouts, Barnardos and other prominent charities in our portfolio, if it wasn’t for recommendation by people. How do we do it? Storytelling is the key, it’s the difference we make, the added value of our actions (which don’t necessarily appear as an item on a line on an invoice), how we do business which makes the difference.

This June, we did another release of our House Newsletter, which focused on direct mail and what it can do and offer, it went to a very selective list of people – so focussed, either existing customers of people we’d like to work with. It links with all our other marketing channels, so it builds our story. To be fair, it is an entry-level functional item of direct mail, personalised on every piece within it, so ticks the box of being direct and personal. We added a small twist, a little piece of Yorkshire, with some Yorkshire Values.

My next question is would you be hospitable to all of your customers? I think we all would say yes. So we only did a list of about 100 names, print and production costs came in around the price of a good cup of barista coffee for each piece. (Of course creative and artwork costs do vary, so depends how you view it.) For reference, I also did the number crunching on double the volume and it came in around 65-75% of the price of your barista coffee. All this including the postage, using Royal Mail Barcoded Mail solutions.

In the commissioning process, we dummied and tested different paper stocks for weight and performance. Included and tested different insertion items for weight and Royal Mail compliance. This ensured we remained in Letter, Band One for postage purposes, so controlling the budget.

If you need to be proper and stand out, demonstrate your values, show you’re real and trust-worthy, we can tailor direct mail solutions to fit. We can suggest ideas to get you remembered for the right reasons too. We are well aware that opportunities for face to face business development could be limited in the foreseeable future. Creating a memorable engagement will become paramount.

Crowning reasons why Direct Mail is still King!

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Long before radio, television and digital marketing, direct mail ruled.

Ask a senior relative about mail order catalogues and they will probably remember the Littlewoods catalogue first published in May 1932, they went on to change shopping across the millennium. Look to the current day, the one that regularly arrives on my doormat is Screwfix, guaranteed with all the usual methods to encourage further engagement.

Today direct mail has received a bit of a bad reputation. The term “junk mail” isn’t exactly a compliment! Some refer to direct mail as an “old” form of advertising, thinking of direct mail as antiquated or off-target. However, when carefully crafted, directed to the right recipient through good use of learned data or other metrics can deliver results which outshine other methods.

The fact is, many companies do use direct marketing. According to recent studies, almost 60% of total mail volume was comprised of direct mail pieces.

Response levels to direct mail continues to be strong every year, generating leads for businesses across a range of industries. Whilst any data set can be described as statistics, the level of these customer response rates to common marketing methods give some cause for reflection.

1.2%	Online Displays
0.6%	Social Media
0.8%	Paid Search
0.35%	E-mail Marketing
6.0%	Direct Mail to a recipient

Why is Direct Mail Effective?

Direct mail is easy.

Direct mail marketing is easy to process. In an age of digital noise, the tactile presence of a physical mailing is feeding your recipient’s non-digital senses. Engaging touch, even a little bit of smell and physical actions of handling an item. Helps the recipient process more, in an efficient manner. One study found it takes 21% less cognitive effort to process physical mail.

Direct mail is interesting.

Almost half of Millennials thrive on the unique experience of physical mail.

According to the leading industry experts, 18-21 year-olds’ response rates to direct mail are as high as 15%. Utilising this within a carefully crafted marketing strategy, utilising a clever progression of other marketing touchpoints millennials are more than likely to engage and respond!

Direct mail is memorable.

People who spend time with physical marketing materials have a stronger emotional response and a better memory of these engagements. A fascinating message goes a long way too when you develop your campaign with direct mail, the longevity increases. Creating colourful, memorable messages, with good written and visual content can start a great fast-tracked progression.

A good example of this is; IKEA as a global player in retail fully understands how to engage through clever mailings. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone is writing a book on all the methods which IKEA have illustrated through their campaigns. From cleverly words press advertisements through to engaging pop-up mailers for LACK side tables, the postcard perfectly demonstrated one of IKEA’s clever design concepts. IKEA’s postcard allowed users to experience the simple assembly of the LACK table, which left a deep, memorable impression.

Just one example of IKEA’s unique approach: https://youtu.be/18lZImt1L9Q

Achieve Face-to-Face with appropriate Direct Mail

Emails are increasingly getting well known for having low open rates, as many users have inboxes brimming at the seams with un-opened mail. When you use direct mail, some will offer you one-on-one attention they wouldn’t give to any other medium. Ask any seasoned marketing expert and they will be the first to tell you direct mail because it stands tall in a digital generation.

Apart from the many catalogues that fill our mailboxes between Halloween and Christmas, most of us receive very little traditional mail. When you make your piece of direct mail stand out from the rest of the mail and get noticed; using a unique design, shapes, different enclosing methods, along with personalisation to maximise the impact.

If you need help creating the perfect direct mail piece that will stand out, we can help you every step of the way.

Find out more about building a connected marketing strategy with print catalysts and digital integrations, sign up for our white paper at http://eepurl.com/gIVF7v