As a business, you really ought to be making use of printed marketing as much as possible.
So, why do direct mailers work so well?
Email is Becoming Oversaturated
Digital Inboxes everywhere are stuffed full of promotional emails as more come in every day. When you open your inbox to find two marketing emails for every one that’s actually of interest to you, it can be so easy to select all and click delete, without even reading them. 57% of abandoned email addresses are because of receiving too many emails.
Direct mail, however, does not have the same issue. In fact, 74% of consumers look forward to seeing what’s in their letterbox. Plus, once opened, people take longer to look over a letter than they do an email so they’re more likely to take in what you’re offering them – especially if you make your mailer a little bit different.
Direct Mailers Perry Process
Perry Process ran a great, attention-grabbing campaign to encourage people to trade in their unwanted process equipment for cash. Inside were fake bank notes (sure to pique your interest) and a card saying Don’t Throw Your Money Away! Once they had their audience’s attention, their message was much more likely to get through.
Direct Mail isn’t as Invasive as Online Ads
Often, people go online because they’re trying to do something, whether that’s checking their emails or searching for something on Google. Whatever they’re doing, it’s frustrating to be interrupted by ads upon ads upon ads. 72% of internet users say that pop-up ads are “very annoying” and 49% of those say that banner ads are just as bad.
Direct mail doesn’t interrupt what you are doing and so clients are already in a more receptive mood when they open it, because they haven’t been interrupted.
Direct Mail Leaves a Stronger Impression in the Brain
With printed media, you actually have to physically hold it in order to deal with it. You have to hold it, make an effort to open it, and take it somewhere to read. Somehow, that extended contact is enough to settle the images into your mind.
Research has found that consumers who received direct mail offers were able to recall the brand 75% of the time, compared to only 44% of the time by people who received digital only copies.
You can imagine a mailer becomes even more memorable when it requires you to do more than just pick it up, can’t you? That’s the logic behind this World Water Day mailer…
Print is Trustworthy
In recent years there has been a growing distrust of the internet as people become more wary of accidentally downloading a computer virus or losing bank details and other important information. Print is much safer in that respect. Print isn’t asking you to give your details away electronically.
In fact, 56% of customers find print marketing to be the most trustworthy type of marketing. Research by the Royal Mail also shows that people associate direct mail with being “believable” and “reliable” but the same adjectives were not applied to email marketing.
Of course, just because people respond better to direct mail, that doesn’t mean you can post just anything through your customers’ letterboxes and expect results – you’ve still got to work on how you can deliver your campaign well.
Next week we will share our 5 Tips for an Effective Direct Mailer Campaign