As the world around us gets increasingly digital, many are still expecting that offline marketing techniques like direct mail will fade away. In fact, the opposite is happening, offline marketing is flourishing. Physical, tangible experiences are now the novelty rather than the norm, they break the cycle of screen staring and are grabbing people’s attention.
But there are still many misconceptions around direct mail, and its role within the marketing mix. Marketing managers to often treat it as an unquantifiable gamble, a shot in the dark, an extra “nice to have”, and a lot of that comes from people thinking it’s not targeted or trackable. So we thought we would give a quick snapshot that will bust these myths.
Is direct mail targeted?
It’s a common misconception that direct mail isn’t targeted, but it is. Campaigns are heavily informed by data, with many different fully GDPR compliant options available. You can identify people who have bought similar products to yours, find people who have a particular interest, and use profiled data like Mosaic and Acorn to target specific demographics.
Is direct mail trackable?
Naturally, digital marketing brings with it a whole host of data. When it comes to tracking, including page views, click-throughs, conversions and bounce rates, Google Analytics is hard to beat, giving you all you could dream of (and more!) For that reason, it may come as a surprise to learn that offline marketing also provides a whole host of tracking data to assess the effectiveness of your campaign.
Using unique tracking codes, matchback reporting, phone numbers and specific landing pages, we can track when, how and even who acted on your direct mail campaign. Doing this gives you pinpoint accuracy for tracking offline marketing campaigns – from viewing and response rates, through to conversion rates and cost per acquisition – basically you can easily see what’s going on with a direct mail campaign, you just have to do it right.
Working out the ROI
So, you’ve done the targeting and the tracking, but that’s not actually going to give you the full picture. This is where our approach to direct mail really comes into its own. We use matchback reporting to demonstrate where sales have been generated from a campaign even when a customer hasn’t used the offer code. This is done by matching your customer transaction report for an agreed period of time, usually 28 days and 60 days after the mailing date, with the send file and clearly reporting back exactly how each campaign performed. Giving you an accurate performance report for your campaign.
We’ve written this blog for all the marketing managers out there struggling to convince their colleagues that a direct mail campaign is the right thing to do. But the great thing is, you don’t actually need to worry about all this, because we take care of it all from start to finish. We can ensure you get the full visibility of your campaign without being overwhelmed by the mechanics.
Want direct mail that’s targeted and trackable?
If that sounds pretty good to you, then get in touch today and let’s chat about how we can help your brand get the most out of offline marketing.
