Direct Mail as Part of Multichannel Marketing Strategy

If you monitor marketing campaigns that are effective in the modern market, you know that multichannel approaches rule. You also may have noticed that direct mail campaigns have had a resurgence in popularity. They’ve once again become widely used by everyone from brick-and-mortar stores to online giants like Google. The reason is that snail mail has more than a 400% higher response rate than emails, paid search, and social media. It makes people notice your brand while they take a moment to look over their mail. This is a touchpoint that increases your chances to turn a lead into a loyal customer. In addition, a direct mail campaign is a powerful force that is still unique enough, since it’s under the radar of many business owners.

Nevertheless, even the best direct mail marketing campaigns lose effectiveness if used inconsistently. To outperform your competitors, you have to supplement mail marketing with promotion through multiple channels. Make sure to check your online presence and establish quality customer support before starting a direct mail campaign. This way, the customer journey will be smooth from the start. Moreover, you can use direct mail automation and a cross-channel marketing platform to align your marketing efforts. Such tools allow sending mail pieces at the right time based on a specific mail list or user action. As a result, people will receive the mail when they are most likely to take the action you’re looking for.

Continue reading to learn more about the importance of direct mail campaigns in multichannel strategies.

According to statistics, the engagement and purchase rate for three or more channels is 250% higher than for a single channel. You can considerably boost the use of multiple channels with a multichannel marketing strategy.

Just like multi-channel marketing, multichannel approaches are based on a combination of several marketing means. So what’s the difference? Well, with multi-channel strategies, customers choose the channel and therefore the experience they want. In contrast, a multichannel marketing strategy ensures a seamless experience across all channels. It turns the customer into the center of attention. Whatever people do — visit a website, go to a brick-and-mortar store, or check their mail — it’s all part of the customer journey. Marketers guide customers through the whole process, predicting their next steps and linking them to the previous actions.

The era when mail marketing was used as a single promotional channel has long passed. Back then, mail newsletters were one of the primary ways to reach the target audience. People weren’t distracted with an abundance of digital content and paid close attention to the cards, letters, and catalogs they received. These days, we get so much information that the brain pays attention only to the most critical or interesting things. People choose the simplest and the most familiar ways to make a purchase or order a service.

That means that they don’t want to waste time learning about a new service if they have never heard about it before. Even the perfect direct mail design and content won’t help without digital support and quality customer service. Customers will just toss it in the garbage or get frustrated when trying to find your non-existent Instagram page. You may repel a potential buyer even with less obvious things. For example, if the store is absent in Google My Business or your Facebook account administrator takes too long to reply, customers might give up. There are many necessary facets to provide seamless customer experience across all channels.

This explains why you need to incorporate a direct mail campaign into a multichannel marketing strategy. If you manage to synchronize your direct mail with other multichannel approaches, this will make every channel more effective and generate additional leads.

There is no way to launch a multichannel marketing strategy without special software. If you want to run the best direct mail marketing campaigns combined with other channels, make sure to start with automation and AI functionality. This will not only save time and resources but also help to manage customer data and align all marketing efforts. You will get a chance to manage all processes from a single place and immediately analyze the results.

If you are about to start a multichannel marketing strategy that includes direct mail, the combination of Blueshift and Inkit is your best choice. Blueshift has a visual campaign builder that allows customizing experiences on every channel, including emails, mobile apps, SMS, websites, ads, push notifications, messaging and direct mail. Powered by AI technology, it can deliver personalized recommendations and real-time predictive segments to ensure 1:1 personalization during the customer journey. Inkit is a powerful direct mail automation tool that provides a custom postcard builder and fully automates printing and delivery. They are easy to integrate and can work wonders if used simultaneously.

E-commerce websites can do more than sending emails or showing online ads to users who decline to purchase. Such online content irritates them and forces them to install ad blockers to get rid of pushy pop-ups. Instead of repeating these common mistakes, you can try to use direct mail remarketing. To run the best direct mail marketing campaigns, you need to understand that a cart is usually abandoned for a reason. According to recent statistics, 63% of U.S. buyers abandon their carts because of the high shipping costs, 46% because a discount doesn’t work, and 36% decide to exit when their order takes too long to deliver. This useful information can help you understand how to keep customers from fleeing.

For example, you can use Inkit’s postcard builder to create a redeemable discount voucher. Add branding and a call to action like: “We appreciate your interest. Check out our special offer”. Combined with Blueshift, it will be useful to keep track of users’ online behavior and see whether your direct mail campaign works. Since the integration will unify all data, direct mail will be triggered only by specific customer actions.

The key idea of a multichannel marketing strategy is to combine offline and digital marketing. Although online presence is crucial to winning a customer, word of mouth and other traditional marketing approaches still matter. A QR code is an optimum way to connect direct mail recipients with your website, social media page, or application. Just add a QR code leading to a relevant web resource to your postcard and encourage people to scan it. You can offer a one-time discount, trial subscription, or access to a new collection. Think like a customer and try to imagine what can make you scan a code.

This way your direct mail campaign will boost your digital marketing. If people make efforts to follow the QR code link and find you online, they will definitely remember your brand. Besides, QR codes will allow you to make your mail design more sophisticated and include less irrelevant information.

Any customer success manager knows that loyalty programs are among the best ways to generate customer engagements. Moreover, 79% of customers state that a loyalty program is a strong reason to continue using a brand. If you want to get the most out of your program, make it available through all channels. You can show the corresponding website pop-up, send the relevant email after users make the first purchase, or deliver a mail piece.

A direct mail campaign is an effective way to make your loyalty program more personalized. Note that with the help of Blueshift’s AI functionality, you can set a range of conditions to deliver different postcards. Besides, thanks to variable data printing supported by Inkit, you can customize every mail piece with personal information. The recipients will be glad to see their names and feel that the offer is specially tailored for them. An unlimited batch size is another of Inkit’s features that can help boost your results. Use the tool to send several greeting postcards to your newly acquired loyal customers without any extra charges.

If you manage an online shop or brick and mortar store, direct mail catalogs featuring new arrivals can bring you a number of new customers. Even when people enjoy going to your store, they won’t have time to regularly stop by to peruse your inventory. As an alternative, you could offer to subscribe them to your catalog by sending an email with personalized content. The simultaneous use of Blueshift and Inkit will allow you to track the delivery process and measure conversion. The real-time cross-channel reporting provided by Blueshift will instantly display data about your marketing activities.

You can also place a QR code near every product in the catalog to encourage instant ordering. This will create an additional touchpoint between your direct mail and online resources, improving the overall customer experience. This kind of approach can significantly strengthen your multichannel marketing strategy.