In an increasingly mobile and digital world, it may seem like direct mail marketing is a thing of the past. However, that’s not the case. While email, video, social media, and online advertising present opportunities for businesses to reach customers, direct mail marketing can increase the chances of getting in front of customers. Sometimes, it can be even more effective than digital marketing efforts.
If you removed direct mail marketing from your business, keep reading. There are some great reasons why it can be useful for your home services business.
What is Direct Mail Marketing?
As the name suggests, direct mail marketing involves mailing or sending marketing materials to someone’s home. Essentially, direct mail marketing is any physical correspondence that you send to your customers. These materials can be postcards, letters, brochures, catalogs, etc. Postcards, which are smaller and easier to digest, receive a higher response rate than other formats — 4.25%.
Contrary to marketing practices, direct mail marketing isn’t dead. Although it’s not as engaging as other marketing formats, it should still be apart of your marketing strategy. Below are some reasons why.
Great ROI
Getting a good return on investment (ROI) is crucial for any business and is a significant marketing metric that influences critical financial decisions. With direct mail marketing, you can get a good amount of value with your money. According to the Neil Patel blog, direct mail ROI is 29%, making it more effective than paid search (23%) and online display ads (16%). Direct mail follows behind social media (30%) and email (124%).
Works Well with Digital Marketing Strategy
A great marketing strategy has multiple channels. A company wouldn’t solely rely on Facebook ads or social media to market their company. They would run Instagram ads, perform paid search campaigns, and use SEO to improve site rankings and increase traffic.
While you shouldn’t only invest in direct mail, it should be a part of your overall marketing strategy. Why?
- 42.2% of direct mail recipients either read or scan the mail they get.
- Direct mail recipients purchase 28% more items and spend 28% more money than people who don’t get that same direct mail piece.
- 73% of American consumers say they prefer being contacted by brands via direct mail because they can read it whenever they want.
- Direct mail open rates can be as high as 90%.
- 62% of consumers who responded to direct mail in the past three months made a purchase.
It’s Still Popular
In the statistic stated above, 73% of consumers prefer being contacted by direct mail because they can read it whenever they want.
Use direct mail to reach your existing customers more effectively. As you know, acquiring new customers costs a lot more, so sending direct mail to your current customers proves more effective.
Works Well with Automation
Building a direct mail campaign from scratch can be tedious, time-consuming, and expensive. However, this is where automation comes into the picture. Instead of spending weeks building out an entire campaign, automation can help streamline the entire direct mail process. What are some reasons why a contractor should use automation with their direct mail marketing strategy?
- Customizable: Many direct mail service providers have customizable dashboards that allow you to personalize and edit your mailings based on your needs or preferences.
- Integration: Through your customer management software, you can create targeted mailing lists — no need for long spreadsheets.
- Scalable: Now, with direct mail campaigns, you can pay for what you need, allowing your campaign to grow with your business.
- Trackable: Tracking is made easy as automation will enable you to measure success better than before.
How to Create Effective Direct Mail Campaigns
Now that we’ve discussed the benefits of direct mail campaigns, let’s go through the steps to create an effective direct mail campaign.
- Create your message.
- This step is a no brainer — you must craft your message first before moving to the next step. First, know your objective and the goal you want to achieve. If you’re going to inform your customers about a new product or encourage a new service, you’ll need to have a clear objective and clear messaging.
- Be sure to inform your customers about what they should do — don’t assume that they know. Your call-to-action must be clear.
- Regardless of your message, make sure to emphasize the benefits. Hone in on how it’ll help your customers.
- Have a creative design.
- Your design should use high-quality images, preferably authentic photos, instead of stock photos. Your images should also be high-resolution so they aren’t blurry when sent to customers.
- Make sure that you choose a font and font colors that are on brand, easy to read, and simple.
- Lastly, choose a reputable printing service that produces high-quality work.
- Build your audience.
- Start with smaller campaigns, so you’re able to measure them, and then move forward with more extensive campaigns later on.
- Once you’ve decided on your audience, find ways to segment the audience down further, and build targeted audiences.
- Lastly, ensure that your mailings are relevant to your target audiences.
- Schedule your campaigns.
- Be timely with your mailings. When sent at the right time, they can be much more effective and successful.
- Make a mailing schedule, and stick to it. Consistency helps establish your brand as trustworthy and reliable.
- Track your campaigns.
- Create a landing page and include a unique link to track signups.
- When deciding on a tracking number, pick one with a local area code. Consumers are likely to have more trust in businesses that use a local area code.
- Use key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of your direct mail campaigns.
- Response rate
- Conversions rate
- Cost per acquisition
- Return on investment
Closing
Hopefully, you’ve learned the many benefits that direct mail marketing can offer your business. When you use an integrated approach with automation and other digital marketing initiatives, direct mail can become an essential part of your overall marketing strategy and allow you to reach your customers and marketing goals.
