Marketers are still getting caught in the either/or trap. While many marketers are using both email and direct mail to get their campaigns out, there’s a sense that these are very separate discrete campaigns.
But the reality is that having a cross-channel mindset can help both your email and your direct mail campaigns!
Consider sending out an email to your customers with a direct mail follow-up package. The email can say something like, “Look in your mailbox next week for this special offer.” Then be sure that the direct mail piece has the same look and feel and the same branding as the email, so that the customer associates the two immediately.
This kind of testing has shown a 20% to 30% lift in response rates!
It’s not an expensive endeavor, as you’re emailing your own established customer base, and you would be sending out the direct mail piece in any case. The coordination is not difficult to do as long as you lay out your strategy, your message, and your creative to all come together correctly.
More and more consumers are using different channels for their shopping experiences; it’s time that marketers also integrate online and offline to reach the most people. More and more often, people are no longer just “one kind” of customer; one person interviewed answered that while she orders online, she likes the paper catalogs to peruse at her breakfast table. This is becoming a typical customer, and marketers need to meet their needs.
The challenge is to see whether or not this lift in response rate and the success of this sort of campaign will translate to an outside list. Will it work with prospects? It’s certainly worth testing to find out!
