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How to integrate direct mail with online marketing
You can see better results from direct mail campaigns when you connect letters and postcards to your website and other elements of your online presence. Direct mail typically has a high return on investment when used correctly, but printing can come with significant costs. This is why you need to maximize the impact of your campaigns. While cross-channel integration is an effective way to boost your reach, consistency is also important.
All marketing efforts should reflect your brand's personality, according to The Web and Print. However, many small-business owners struggle to translate their offline efforts into online campaigns. It isn't necessarily about creating a better online presence compared to offline initiatives, but if you are going to include URLs or calls to action that take mail recipients to the Internet, your Web presence should reflect the mail piece. If your company website is poorly designed, contains outdated information or is difficult to navigate, visitors will quickly leave, and your mail campaign won't have the intended results.
Even if you aren't specifically directing recipients to your website, many new customers do research online before deciding to buy. They could be alienated by an outdated Web presence.
Tips for integrating online and offline efforts
As long as you avoid the potential Internet hiccups, integrating campaigns across multiple channels is a great way to increase engagement and ROI, Direct Marketing News stated. No matter which channels you choose to utilize, planning is essential to running a successful campaign. You need to carefully outline the role that each channel will play in the campaign and create a timeline for the rollout. Before mailers are sent, you need to define the main goals for these efforts to ensure the message is on target with your audience. It also may be a good idea to test which channels have the best performance before the campaign.
There are a few techniques to avoid when utilizing cross-channel marketing efforts, the article says. Integration needs to go beyond using multiple channels to send recipients the same message more than once. For example, don't use email to send a copy of the marketing piece customers received in their mailboxes. Individuals may be more likely to spend a longer amount of time engaging with direct mail compared to other mediums, but sending the exact same message doesn't add value to the interaction. Emailing slightly different content can remind recipients of the mail piece and prompt them to take action. Another important consideration is to assess current satisfaction levels and customer service capabilities to determine the timing of your mailer. For instance, it would be a poor choice to run a direct mail campaign asking for customer referrals after a significant service disruption.
Your marketing campaigns should present an accurate portrait of the positive attributes of your company, The Web and Print suggested. In addition to careful planning, direct mail software can handle some of the more tedious aspects of a campaign, such as presorting and verifying addresses so you can see high ROI.
