Marketing today has many different channels ranging from traditional mail to multiple online platforms. Even with the growing number of social media and other digital methods for reaching one’s target audience, there are four reasons why direct mail marketing remains more effective than email marketing.
1. Email Marketing is Becoming Oversaturated
How many emails do you have just sitting in your inbox? How many of those emails do you actually open and read? The majority of the population have thousands of emails that just sit in their inbox, and according to a study by Pando.com, the average inbox across all email providers has about 8,024 messages.
The simple truth is that we are receiving more emails than we have the time to open or even read. If comparing the open rates to direct marketing, it is clear that efforts are best spent with direct mail. A study by Epsilon showed that 77 percent of consumers sort through their physical mail as soon as they receive it. An even better statistic from the United States Postal Service found that 98 percent of consumers bring in their mail the day it’s delivered.
Since most businesses today are now focusing on email marketing, why not take advantage of direct mail marketing? Direct mail marketing was once a saturated industry, but with digital marketing becoming as big as it is, it has caused direct mail marketing to become novel again.
2. Direct Mail Can Be Tested
Direct mail marketing allows marketers to run split test campaigns and adjust marketing efforts to develop the highest return on investment. Campaigns can be easily tracked by counting the amount of times a coupon was redeemed, sending traffic to custom landing pages, and comparing the total number of new inquiries to average inquiries without direct mail efforts.
Direct mail efforts can be split tested by sending one offer to a set area and another offer to a separate area. Whichever offer delivers more conversions could then be scaled to a larger target audience.
3. Direct Mail is More Trusted
Trust is one of the most important aspects of marketing because customers tend to buy from brands they trust. In the digital marketing world, it’s much harder to develop rapport with customers. Many are suspicious of online offers because of possible phishing of personal information and identity theft. Unlike email marketing, direct mail doesn’t face this problem.
4. Direct Mail is Tangible and Personal
Direct mail can be personalized by adding customers’ names to it. Recipients of pre-printed mail are more likely to open it than generic mailers addressed to the current resident. Many email marketers purchase lists of emails that may or may not still be valid, active or even checked.
Cold emailing has a much lower conversion rate than cold direct mail mailing. No other marketing channel allows a business to get directly into prospects’ hands and create an instant connection. The CMO Council has found that customers are more likely to take the time to look over direct mail offer than an email offer.
The choice should be simple now. To stand out with prospects and competitors, send direct mail marketing. Visit OvernightPrints.com for more information on Mailing Services.
Article contributed by Anthony Cafone, social media specialist at OvernightPrints.com.
