Direct Mail
What is Direct Mail and how can it benefit your Marketing Strategy?
How do you create a Direct Mail Campaign?
What makes a great letterbox campaign?
Below, we discuss all of these questions to help maximise the ROI of your print projects, including some creative ideas and inspiration to achieve excellent Direct Mail advertising results.
We have over 35 years of experience offering full support and tailored solutions to varied budgets, timelines and resources.
What is Direct Mail?
Simply put, Direct Mail is any type of mail sent or placed physically into a recipients letterbox that advertises a service, product, offer or otherwise. This may be in the form of a letter, notice or an attractively designed piece of marketing collateral like a one-piece custom mailer, envelope or a flyer that is letterbox dropped.
Why use Direct Mail?
Direct Mail is an
Effective Marketing Tool
While the majority flock towards digital advertising and social media as their exclusive marketing platforms, anyone who has executed a successful Direct Mail Campaign knows the benefit of a tangible piece of marketing material delivered directly into the hands of customers.
A general misconception is that traditional marketing techniques, like Letterbox Marketing, are more expensive and ineffective, but this is simply not the case for a well-executed Direct Mail campaign, particularly when part of a Multi-Channel marketing approach. In fact, Multi-Channel campaigns that use print can often be easier, cheaper and more effective than digital-only marketing strategies.
Let's take a look at how a Direct Mail Campaign can benefit your marketing strategy...
A Targetted Approach
Digital Marketing certainly has its benefits, but the more complicated algorithms get, and the more complex legislation becomes, the harder it is to curate the right content that's going to reach you're intended audience without a considerable outlay of resources, time and money.
Direct Mail campaigns allow you to nourish your existing customer list and/or reach out to a completely new audience based on geo-demographic targeting to create catchment areas for unaddressed mail. So even if you haven't been collecting extensive data through a mailing list or CRM, we can help you build audiences for an Unaddressed Mail campaign using variables like location-based profiling, age, income, lifestyle, behaviours, interests and lots more. The data available for an Unaddressed Mail campaign is compiled through data resources like Roy Morgan Research, Census Data, ABS Household Expenditure Survey and geoTribes Segmented data. Rather than hoping your audience notices a post in a sea of others as they scroll through their social media feeds, Direct Mail lets you target your audience and ensure your marketing piece lands in their letterbox.
A Combined Strategy
Facebook is Australia's most used Social Media platform, but still, only 40% of the total population were using the application in April 2020, so it's not often a business or organisation would find 100% of its audience on these social channels. Direct Mail allows you to target an audience on and off digital channels.
Let's take, for example, a chain of RSL clubs wanting to increase attendance to their Friday night Bingo sessions. An Unaddressed Mail campaign might target a distribution zone within a 10km radius around each RSL location to over 45's, offering a 2 for 1 meal if they attend an upcoming Bingo Session at their local RSL. The campaign might also incorporate a Digital Component, inviting recipients of the Direct Mail piece to scan a QR Code then sign up to the RSL's mailing list to get a bonus free drink with their meal.
Having a good understanding of your customer behaviour, interests and personas will help you to decide what targeting variables to utilise and whether you could benefit from including offline marketing channels in your marketing strategy.
Improve Your Digital Marketing Results with Direct Mail
Marketers today have a plethora of media channels to choose from when planning an effective marketing strategy,
so creating a robust Multi-Channel campaign is now easier than ever.
Utilising Direct Mail in a Multi-Channel campaign mix can ramp up results and super-charge your ROI.
Perhaps you have a TV Advertisement scheduled to air during a Friday night Football game promoting your brand.
A Direct Mail piece scheduled to land in letterboxes for the following Monday could follow up from this, including a special offer if they visit your website or purchase a product. Alternatively, your Direct Mail piece could arrive in letterboxes prior to the Friday night game, prompting viewers to watch out for your advertisement during the game to receive a code that will unlock a special offer or allow an entry into a competition.
Aligning a Direct Mail piece alongside other marketing activities in a Multi-Channel approach,
allows you to cast a wide net across a targeted audience diversifying your potential return.
Make it Personal
Hard selling is out. Personalised connections are in.
There is a time and place for hard-selling tactics, but we're now less inclined to react favourably to this method.
We want to feel understood, helped and appreciated as customers.
Personalising experiences is one way of connecting with customers to build relationships.
Direct Mail is an effective tool in building more personalised experiences into your customer journey.
Show that you are a brand who really understands and appreciates their consumer.
You could start with simply using their name on the front of a Direct Mail piece or One-Piece Mailer.
But the possibilities don't end there.
Here are a few ideas for a personalised approach.
Operational Hours and Locations - If your business has multiple locations, our variable data capabilities allow you to print the details of each consumer's closest location on your Direct Mail piece, whether you have 3 locations across Brisbane or hundreds of locations across Australia.
Wish Lists & Related Products - If you're collecting purchasing data, like wish-lists as some eCommerce platforms do, your Direct Mail campaign could be used to promote products that your consumers already show an interest in. Perhaps customers buying your gym tights might also be interested in your new range of sneakers!
Relevant Products & Services - Using geographic and demographic data, you might consider personalising a Direct Mail campaign with products and services that are relevant to the consumer. Let's say you're a camping & outdoors retailer and you'd like to run a summer sale that markets beach gazebo's to consumers on the coast, the latest tent range to adventurous city residents and fishing gear to 18-45 years old Australians interested in fishing.
Variable Imagery - Variable Data Technology effectively allows every printed piece to be unique, so even the images can change depending on your data. A great example is a Local Council sending Animal Registration Renewal Notices who could print an image of a dog on dog owner notices, an image of a cat for cat owners and an image of a cat and a dog for people who own both. To take this another step further, the council could also consider personalising their Direct Mail piece with breeds, printing a photo of a Border Collie for Border Collie owners and so on.
Stand out from the Crowd!
One benefit of Direct Mail that Digital Marketing can't compete with is the power of touch, feel, smell and taste.
By physically mailing a printed piece of collateral to your consumer, you have the opportunity to utilise their REAL senses to create an experience that is memorable.
This might be as simple as the paper stock you choose, the way in which the consumer opens and folds your One-Piece Mailer, or an add-on or FREE sample included with your mailed piece.
Here are some examples...
Paper Stock - Paper Stock - While not specifically a Direct Mail project, the DRIRIDER catalogue always comes to my mind when talking about the feel of paper stock. Their brief to us was that they wanted the 2021 catalogue to feel as smooth, soft and sensual as their high-quality leather bike apparel. Quite the challenge, but the experienced Printcraft team rose to the challenge, producing a beautiful catalogue that is a pleasurable experience to peruse. For DRIRIDER or a similar business, a mailed marketing piece that creates a similar experience to touching their actual product may also make an impactful impression.
Seeded Paper - Did you know that we can source plantable paper that is embedded with seeds?! Whether it's Basil or pretty flowers this is an environmentally friendly and recyclable paper that may suit a number of brands and their messaging. A great campaign idea if you're launching a new environmentally friendly and sustainable product range or your brand is promoting a message of sustainability or organic living.
Product Samples - From sachets of tea leaves to perfumes and moisturisers, sending a small sample of your product in the mail is a tried and tested way to introduce a product to consumers. Our capabilities include the option to "spot latex" glue your bonus free sample on your Direct Mail piece to complement the printed design elements.
Folds & Perforations - Getting creative with the folds and perforations of your print design can create a unique opening experience for your consumer to remember. This could be designing the folds to open a one-piece mailer in a specific order that compliments the copy and call-to-action, a perforated loyalty card or an interactive activity like our 2021 Easter Bunny Mail Campaign where our clients constructed cute little bunny boxes that our Sales Managers later filled with chocolate eggs!
NEWSFLASH: PRINT IS NOT DEAD
Print is an increasingly powerful tool - as both a stand-alone campaign or a Multi-Channel component.
Here at Printcraft, we have a passionate team with over 40 years of experience in the industry and a 5-Star Google Rating.
We can assist with your Direct Mail Campaign, including the following:
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Concept, Strategy & Graphic Design
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Offset & Digital Print for Small & Large Volumes
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Personalisation & Variable Data Printing
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Die-Cutting and Perforation
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Spot Latex Glueing, Polybagging and Insertion
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One-Piece & Custom Mailers
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Bulk mail & Targetted Distribution
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Multi-Channel Marketing
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Data Processing
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Tracking & Reporting
Contact us to discuss your project objectives and marketing goals, and we'll provide a solution tailored to your unique business needs.
We look forward to being of service to you.