86% of people connected with a business as a direct result of receiving direct mail (Royal Mail MarketReach, 2014). This is a huge number if you think about it in terms of lateral numbers where for every 100 people who receive your direct mail, 86 will connect with your business. They will first take a look at your social media pages or go directly to your website depending on the call action provided on your direct mail.
Due to their proven effectiveness, direct mail services have gained recognition among small businesses. Even though direct marketing seems outdated, the results have shown higher response rates compared to emails. Ultimately, it’s a worthwhile investment for businesses. For instance, when you make and send high-quality postcards, they are presented in person and are visually appealing, making them a powerful marketing tool. This attribute contributes to their effectiveness in capturing the recipient’s attention, driving engagement, and obtaining more customers.
Direct Mail Is Personal
Direct mail can be a personal and effective way to reach potential customers, especially when combined with a service like Postalytics that helps you to automate and track your campaigns.
Unlike email which only requires 1 of the 5 senses which is sight, with direct mail you can appeal to 3 senses at a go making it more personal. Think of a beauty company selling perfumes that sends a catalog of their products to their customers. They can creatively make the visuals of the perfumes appealing and luxurious looking to appeal to the sight of the readers. They can choose a glossy type of paper to print their catalogs which adds to the whole luxurious feel of the brand and appeals to the sense of touch. Then the cherry on the cake that adds the pizzazz to all of it is to have scented strips of perfume in the pages to appeal to the readers’ sense of smell.
This is one of the best ways to get people to order fragrances because they get a taste of how they smell through the catalogue. Whereas if you sent them an email they would have to order samples first or come to the store, sending direct mail is more personal and connects more with the recipient.
Mail is tangible
The tangibility aspect of direct mail is one of the reasons why it has a higher response rate. Think of it like this, would you rather receive an email wishing you a happy birthday or a birthday card sent to your physical address? Most people would prefer the latter because in this age of digital marketing, it shows more thoughtfulness and appreciation when you send a physical card than an email which probably didn’t take you more than 5 minutes to construct. It’s the same thing with your advertising. Your customers will appreciate your catalog more if you sent it via direct mail tahan if you did via email. It registers in their mind that this is a company that values them enough to spend their money printing something and shipping it to them.
Increased Authenticity
Sending direct mail has the positive effect of creating trust with your customers. A lot of emails are ignored as spam because readers feel invaded especially when they never gave you the permission to contact them. They’re likely to distrust businesses that send these types of emails. In fact they will not even open them. Direct mail on the other hand has a level of trust that can’t be compared to emails. Usually people imagine that any company ready to print its mail and send it out to prospects and customers is probably a legitimate company. Make sure you include your logo and all your contact information, especially social media handles. These are essential in validating your business.
Better Brand Recognition
A decent amount of effort should be made in ensuring that your direct mail expresses all the important aspects of a consistent brand. You first need to make sure your logo is well positioned and visible to readers. The colors you choose also matter a lot because they help with instant brand recognition even from a distance. As readers look at your mail they get to interact with your brand in a better way depending on how you’ve also put together your visuals and text. When they go to your website, they should see a consistency which will make it easier for them to purchase from you.
A Higher Response
As mentioned earlier, direct mail delivers higher response rates than emails for the reasons mentioned above. People enjoy receiving direct mail and research by Royal Mail MarketReach shows that 58% of people say that mail made them think about using a product or buying from a brand and reminded them about a brand or company. Any business that desires to take advantage of direct mail will see results but they must make sure to do their own research and target the right audience. The best marketing campaign is the one that understands the needs of its audience and delivers that.
Don’t stop at just printing beautiful business cards or postcards! With our Direct Mail service we will print your products and mail them too! All you have to do is design your product and send us your list of addresses to get them sent out.