Sending mail to clients and prospects keeps you front-of-mind. But getting the right mix of email and direct mail is key.
In the third of our five-part blog series on ‘Trad-digital marketing,’ we’re talking about the importance of direct mail, both electronic and traditional, to keep your clients and prospects engaged and informed.
So, you’ve built a good website, and you’re keeping it up to date. You’ve developed your social media presence to get your message out to your target market and drive people to your website. But are you sending regular mail to your clients and prospects to keep them informed of key information about your services?
It can be easy to get lost in the technical aspects of building and maintaining your website, as well as producing content for your social media platforms and managing their day-to-day activity. But don’t be tempted to neglect traditional direct mail or email marketing!
Advocates of email marketing will be quick to point out the positive aspects. It is low-cost, produces (arguably) a better ROI, offers greater speed and flexibility, its easily trackable and also provides quantifiable results. What they may gloss over, however, are the less than positive realities such as clogged inboxes, spam, and the amount of time it takes to build and maintain a solid email list.
So, why has direct mail become increasingly popular again in recent years? One possible reason is that it is more tangible and offers certain benefits that email cannot match. People are more likely to read a well-desinged direct mail piece with a highly focused message, and certain formats like postcards can be really effective for this. However, direct mail continues to be relatively costly to implement and offers a limited ability to track results.
So, what can you do to ensure that you are spending your marketing dollars wisely while tapping into the best of both email and direct mail?
The answer is to use each to its best advantage. Email marketing works best when it is consistent and focused on certain goals. One way of achieving this is producing a high-quality email newsletter on a regular basis. This can be used to provide your existing clients and most prominent prospects with regular updates about your company, your products, recent successes and news that they might not seek out on their own but is highly relevant and may help encourage a buying decision.
A well-crafted email newsletter will have an inviting, visually appealing, and user-friendly format, including short, informative content with links to your website’s blog, news section and specially-designed landing pages. Ensure that tracking code is added to help you identify what content resonates most with your customers and prospects. This will also help you to track the long-tail benefits of your email marketing, too. To be most effective, you need to make sure your email newsletter goes out on a regular basis, for example monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly, depending on your business needs. Remember, consistency and engaging content is key. You should also be sure to include all components necessary to comply with CAN-SPAM laws, or your emails won’t get to your customers at all.
Direct mail should be used in two ways. First, for following-up with prospects after an initial email when they are first added to your mailing list, as well as for communicating special offers or events that may be of interest on an ad-hoc basis.
Secondly, existing clients should also receive the same updates on special offers and events, but direct mail pieces can also be used to convey special deals or other information that is only available to them. This creates a sense of exclusivity and emphasizes your appreciation of their continued business.
Although direct mail has a reputation for being difficult to track, you can use QR codes, custom URLs, special offer codes and custom phone lines to help you monitor their effectiveness and, ultimately, your ROI.
To truly benefit from both email marketing and traditional direct mail you need to take a look at your business and determine what mix works best for you. Working with a company that understands the ins and outs of a well-balanced email and direct mail strategy as part of your wider marketing efforts can help guide you in the right direction.
If you’re looking to make an impact with your email and direct mail marketing, DriveProfit and Create A Card can help you implement both as part of a highly effective marketing strategy. With the right plan in place, you’ll be ready to meet the challenges of marketing your business in 2019 and beyond.
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