For years, Marketers have talked about how important experiential marketing is to a company’s growth and success. Clearly, experiential marketing is suffering in the wake of COVID-19, and more disruption is expected with the cancelation of conferences, sports, and major events. The NBA and NHL seasons were canceled and postponed respectively. Upcoming Major Music Festivals and Events, like F8, Adobe Marketing Summit, Coachella, and SXSW, were postponed indefinitely, with some being moved online and others being rescheduled for later in the year. For brands that spend a significant amount on-field marketing through roadshows, events & conferences, roundtables, and face-to-face customer meetings, this is going to be a problem in the short term.
Experiential Marketing is all about allowing customers to truly experience your brand. When done right, Experiential Marketing helps to enhance and even reinforce the brand perception in the most relevant manner. Shutting down events and storefronts removes the experiential capability from the marketing mix. How do we solve this?
Direct Mail. Research conducted by Royal Mail explains that “giving, receiving and handling tangible objects remain deep and intuitive parts of the human experience.” The research concluded that 60% of consumers surveyed said that direct mail made a lasting impression on them, making it easier to recall in the future. Another 57% noted that postcard marketing makes them feel more valued and creates a more authentic relationship.
Direct Mail doesn’t provide for the ease of clicking a link. Driving direct mail recipients back to your website requires them to type your url into a browser. While this may seem like a hurdle for the effort it requires of the customer, it’s a unique opportunity to strategically track the success of your direct mail campaign.
According to the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), 78% of consumers either visit a company’s website or perform an online search after they’ve received a direct mail piece from a brand they like. Once they visit your website, they are less likely to bounce to another site before truly reviewing and considering your content. Any prospect who is willing to take these steps should be considered a qualified lead.
Considering the growing number of people working from home, and the increasing likelihood of being confined to isolation or lockdown, this might be the perfect time to reach out to people through Direct Mail. There could be an audience of 126 Million just waiting to receive mail every day!