Direct Mail vs. Email Marketing. One or the Other? Or Both?

Today, direct marketing can be challenging—but challenging in a good way. Never before have there been more options available for reaching your target audience, influencing their purchase decisions and creating valuable relationships. Marketing plans can now include direct mail, email marketing, social media and mobile options and each can play a unique role. If marketing budgets were unlimited the choice would simply be “all of the above.” Since that’s rarely the case, let’s look at some the pros and cons of direct mail versus email marketing, a decision facing many marketers today.

Overhead Costs

Direct mail has a long history of effectiveness in delivering sales and brand awareness. And that hasn’t changed with the advent of online marketing. Consumers still like direct mail and still respond to it. The proponents of email marketing site the associated costs of direct mail as a drawback. Unlike email there is printing and postal costs that need to be factored in those can be significant. But they also provide the value of delivering more creative tangible pieces directly into the hands of consumers. Designers of direct mail are experts at creating pieces that prospects can not only see but touch, manipulate and interact with in three dimensions.
With email marketing, design can also be very creative and impactful. But, it will always be one dimensional and restricted to the html code of the delivery platform. That’s why most email platforms offer templates for customers to use and why all too often emails tend to look similar. Importantly, you want your email blasts to integrate with your website and branding so you need to consider available fonts, colors and programming costs as well as the actual CPM of delivery, a not so slight factor.

Delivery

The old adage that “the mail must go through” is still true. Yes, there may be lag time with direct mail compared to the near instant delivery of email, but you can be assured that it will be delivered. It doesn’t require an “opt-in” and won’t get caught in a spam filter. Unlike email, opening a direct mail piece won’t threaten a computer virus.
As with all direct marketing, much of a campaign’s effectiveness starts with the accuracy of the data file. With so much contact information being digitized today, mail lists, if fresh, can be quite accurate and delivery nearly complete.
With email, accuracy and freshness is even more of a concern. The gold standard today is the “double opt-in” and many email marketing firms won’t accept lists that have not been verified. A bad list can get you “blacklisted” and labeled a problem vendor. Keep in mind that people change email address much more frequently than they change postal addresses so email usually requires much greater hygiene that other mail options.

Effectiveness

In comparing the effectiveness of email vs. direct mail, the answer is not that simple. Both have advantages and value and most professional marketers would want all of their marketing initiates to integrate, support their brand and have a good ROI. For smaller firms email marketing along with social platforms offer a lower barrier to entry whereas larger firms will want to incorporate email marketing as a supplemental part of the overall marketing mix. There is one overriding factor for both. Starting with a marketing database that is clean, fresh and specifically curated to reach your target audience will impact positively every other aspect of your campaigns.

Some Tips for Creating and Delivering Effective Direct Mail Campaigns

Marketing through direct mail may not get as much buzz as evolving digital options but that doesn’t mean it’s any less effective. Here are some tips to keep in mind to maximize your direct mail ROI.

  • Know your customer. Knowing who your target customer is always a critical first step. They will cluster around certain metrics like gender, age, income, home ownership, geography and previous purchases. Your own database will give you a clear picture of active and prospective clients. Target them first! These are repeat customers who have told you they like what you offer.
  • Expand Your Audience. Use your customer profile to expand your reach by purchasing data files from a reputable vendor. They will be able to isolate the metrics you want and deliver many more prospects that fit the profile you provide.
  • Test Your Messaging. Before committing to a large-scale mailing, try out your message on a small subset of your database. You can test and refine it to find what wording or call to action gets a better response and integrate that into the final campaign.
  • Personalize. When possible, personalize your message. Research shows people tend to respond more favorably if targeted on a personal level. But be cautious. If there are errors in the database, they will show up as errors on the personalization such as a mis-spelled name or a Mrs. instead of a Mr. and backfire.
  • Make your offer sizzle. Be sure that what you are offering is actually seen as valuable. People like deals and you have to grab readers attention quickly. Giving someone $20 off may not sound as exciting as SAVE 50% Now.
  • Use Multiple Mail Houses. Mail houses are a critical link between your direct mail piece and delivery to your customers and prospects. Mail houses can help provide efficiencies with customization, printing and pre-sorting to save on postage. If your product or service is national consider a West Coast-East Coast type option or a national company with multiple locations especially if your offer is time sensitive. They are closer to the customer and can help affect timely delivery.
  • Track Responses. Incorporate a system that will tell you where a response or sale came from. Using promotional codes, coupons or toll-free numbers you’ll see which wording and messaging works best with which groups and you can incorporate that intelligence into the next part of your campaign.
  • Follow-up Aggressively. Utilize different creative options with additional rounds of mailings and specific timetables. Direct mail experts know that a conversion often happens on the second or third round of outreach.

Marketing with direct mail is different than marketing digitally. Response isn’t always immediate and being patient can be critical especially if your campaign is multi-layered or sequenced. Sometimes it takes a variety of messages and packaging for it all to come together. But if you trust in your marketing team and have patience, direct mail will deliver a strong ROI, engage customers and bring in new sales.

Understand Your Customers to Drive Better Results

Most companies today have a pretty good understanding of exactly who comprises their customer base. Or do they?

It’s easy to fall into the trap that capturing some data about customers age, income and gender is enough to keep sales moving forward. However, what if you had much more data, and detailed information about their shopping habits and personal motivations? Could you use that to refine your marketing campaigns, introduce new products or capture additional market share? Much of that data is available to you by better utilizing your own resources or purchasing it from a third-party. Let’s look at some techniques you can use to grow sales and improve ROI.

Start With What You Have

Larger companies usually have a dedicated marketing staff with data analysis embedded into their department. Even they supplement their data with third-party information to give them a competitive edge. If you are not in the big leagues, first look to your own database. Make sure it is clean and up-to-date as possible. Most importantly be sure your entire team is working on the same platform and consistently capturing the same data points.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems have become much more affordable and offer a wide-range of easy-to-use tools that integrate with your website. When a customer interacts with your website or responds to an email blast, you can track when they visited, what web pages they visited, if they ordered an item or only placed it in to a cart. All of these actions can be captured and attached into their individual record.

Most CRM systems can easily be set up to respond to your customers behavior using if/then scenarios. For example: If an item is held in shopping cart for 48 hours then automatically send an email to that customer with 10% off offer. Now your CRM is delivering much more actionable information and helping you form a more direct and personal relationship with each customer.

Supplement Your Data

As part of your growth strategy or expansion consider the important role and value-added services a third-party data provider can supply. If the profile of your customer is accurate you can use that information to purchase databases that can greatly expand your reach. For example, if you’ve identified that your most valuable customers have a profile that includes new home ownership or are clustered around a specific income level and geographic area, you can purchase data lists with exactly those metrics thereby targeting your best prospects only. Larger companies usually have relationships with data companies but if you are new to the process keep in mind that data ages quickly. If you want the highest quality results, make sure the vendors you choose can assure you that the data they supply is as recent and fresh as possible.

Survey Your Customers

Have you ever asked your customers what they actually want? How and when they want it supplied? Or if they purchase a competitive product and why? We live in a world where surveys seem to be everywhere—because they work! Email surveys are easy to set up within a CRM and can give you important insight especially if brief and targeted. Use them to ask about product selection, customer service and questions about purchase motivations. When you ask open ended questions, you’ll be surprised how often you’ll find answers you weren’t expecting which can provide valuable insight for improved sales and service.

Do a Competitive Analysis

Just because you know who your competitors are doesn’t always tell you why they are your competitors. Most companies have a fairly good idea of what their market share is amongst their competitors but too often they haven’t done a deep dive into why. Yes, data can give you significant insight but don’t overlook the obvious. If you’re selling a product, visit some of the stores where it’s sold. Does your competitor get top shelf locations or secure floor displays enhancing their perceived value? Sometimes it makes sense to raise your prices, not lower them. Selling a service? Go into the field with your sales reps and talk with customers to see who else they’ve considered and why.

Understanding your customers in detail is one of the surest ways to refine your product offering, sharpen your pricing and enhance your customer interactions. Start with what you have, expand your reach by using third-party data offerings and don’t overlook the tried-and-true experience of getting out into the field to make sure your insights hold up in a real-world setting.