What is Direct Mail Marketing?
Direct Mail Marketing, AKA Direct Mail Advertising, or simply Direct Mail, is any advertisement you send through the mail, most commonly via the USPS. But it can also include flyers, door hangers, and the like delivered by people, whether it is someone you hire for the job, your current employees, or even yourself.
Direct Mail campaigns are written by a copywriter who understands the audience. They do the research, ad copy, CTA or Call To Action, for the business sending out the campaign.
Direct Mail can be a letter, bulky mail campaign (something to thicken the envelope, causing people to open the envelope instead of just tossing it), Outrageous Marketing, multiple deliveries as in a campaign, or just a flyer or ad on a postcard delivered to homes and businesses.
EDDM, or Every Door Direct Mail, is a program of the USPS that allows you to reach one postal route or a whole town at a time. I will talk more about this in the section below.
Is Direct Mail Dead?
According to top marketing watch group companies, the bottom line answer is a resounding no. In fact, to summarize what they are saying is that online marketing has recently reached its peak. It is still active but on a downhill trend. These are all facts you can verify with just a little research.
Due to so many scams, advertising overload, and mixed messages online, more and more consumers trust the information they can hold in their hands, like letters, postcards, and other forms of physical marketing material.
In fact, I have verified testimonies of businesses who have seen a really good ROI (Return on Investment) on their advertising dollars using offline marketing. I’ll discuss that in the section below on different types of direct mail and offline marketing.
Am I against Online Marketing?
I want to say that I am not against online marketing. In fact, I offer online services myself. I do that under a different name – JBL Action Marketing. I am a Certified SEO Copywriter, which means I help businesses with websites and online marketing build their organic traffic. Organic traffic means you don’t have to buy online advertising, but you optimize for words people search for.
I believe some of the best marketing combines online and offline. If your offline marketing is well-written with a good Call To Action, you can get people to go online, where you can expand your thoughts.
You most likely are reading this post because you got to this page via a printed URL or a QR code.
Have You Received a Catalog in the Mail?
Think about the catalogs you receive in the mail, especially at holiday times. That cost those companies a pretty penny, but they continue to do it because it works. You may ask, why don’t they send a link to their website? Because when something is in your hand, you are more likely to look at it than go to a website and browse.
The bottom line is it is making them money.
It doesn’t just work for big business, either. Smaller local businesses are succeeding with direct mail, whether a simple ad on a postcard co-op mailer (our flagship product), a stand-alone postcard, or a letter inside an envelope.
Flyers, Door Hangers, Rack Cards, and More
I am sure you have found a real estate flyer, a restaurant menu, a roofer’s offer, or a door hanger from another business on your front door. Someone had to put much effort into delivering them or pay someone to do it for them. In addition, there is the cost of printing.
Why do they keep showing up? They work!
They work best when you do it multiple times. Some business people try something one time and say it doesn’t work. Repetition in advertising is critical to your success. It is a proven fact that people need to see an ad mentioned between five and fifteen times before they take action. It depends on the wants or needs of each one.
To Sum It Up
In closing, do some research to see how you can use direct mail to enhance your business’ marketing. You may be surprised.
We offer a Free Discovery call to help you figure it out. We can guide you to do it on your own, we can do it for you, and we can provide you with the material you need at a great price.
I wish you much success in your business.