Snail Mail in an Internet World

In an age where the Internet rules, companies may be unsure about how to use direct mail to their advantage. The truth is, when done well, direct mail is a viable and affordable way to reach customers. For maximum results, utilize a direct mail campaign in conjunction with Internet marketing.

Barack Obama’s campaign for the presidency is a success story of using both Internet and direct mail marketing to reach customers—or voters in this case. In addition to launching a targeted direct mail effort, Obama used powerful Internet marketing tools including e-mail marketing (Obama was rumored to have over two million people on his e-mail distribution list!) and social media tools like Facebook and Twitter.

Each of these marketing techniques has specific benefits…

Tried and true direct mail

Direct mail has been around for a long time, and it remains one of the most cost-effective forms of marketing. There is ample space to tell the whole story, with multiple sales surfaces for highlighting offers and benefits; plus, virtually every consumer has a mailbox.¹

One of the most potent advantages of direct mail is the opportunity to develop highly targeted mailing lists. When it comes to targeted marketing, good mail lists are easier to build than substantial e-mail marketing lists. A segmented and highly targeted customer database helps in pricing and positioning the product uniquely to each household—which lifts response rates, enables better cross-sell and ensures more satisfied customers. Interested in hearing more about enhancing your database? The experienced database marketing team at EdgeMark Partners can help.

Innovative, fast Internet marketing

E-mail marketing is inexpensive, fast and eco-friendly. Using the Internet is a great way to conduct test offers and get answers to survey questions. Also, important downloads, such as white papers, can be made easily and instantly accessible on the Internet to your customers.¹ E-mails can help drive people to Web pages, which in turn lifts customer response rate.

Getting personal

A great way to get the best of both worlds is Personalized Web sites (PURLs). These valuable tools combine direct mail with Internet marketing, and they are a simple way to engage the customer. Customers receive a direct mail piece containing the PURL, which they use to log onto the personalized site and which captures their information for future print or Internet marketing efforts.²

For example, when a bank was having trouble getting customers to convert to online banking through their direct marketing efforts, they switched to variable data printing, a form of on-demand printing that allows for mass customization, and PURLs. These changes helped highlight the benefits and security features of Internet banking. Eight out of 10 customers who visited the PURL enrolled in online banking—an increase from 0.4 percent to 2.5 percent.² That is over a 600-percent rate of improvement.

Avoiding the spam issue

Where there’s e-mail marketing, there are pesky spam filters. Getting around these filters presents a challenge to marketers and communicators in their e-mail marketing efforts. That’s why the Obama campaign sent out pieces of full-color direct mail in South Carolina—ensuring that an important message ended up in the hands of actual voters and not in the e-mail spam folder.³

Sources: 

¹ Businessknowhow.com “E-mail Versus Direct Mail: Which works better?” 

²  eZinearticles.com “The Power of PURLs”

³ hotcards.com “The Obama Direct Mailer Debate”