Are you looking to increase return rates on your current direct mail program or trying to decide if direct mail will be an effective marketing tool for you? Well, you are not alone. Mail still plays a strong role in today’s communications; it has simply evolved like the rest of our industry. One route to delivering the desired results and success for you and your clients is to add an interactive layer to your direct mail campaign.
There are many digital tools available to you today that provide personalization and interactive content. So how do you go about taking steps to bring digital content into your direct mail program and which tools do you incorporate? Do you even know what your options are? Here are a few tips that can help start you in the right direction:
1. Know your audience – For some recipients direct mail will be the way to go, for others, they may prefer an email campaign. Understanding your recipients’ preferences can go a long way toward a successful campaign. If you aren’t already, conduct a survey – or obtain your client’s data – of your recipients’ communication preferences and habits. Analyzing this data will unlock valuable insights about which channels are most relevant to your users.
2. Develop a marketing plan – Before you begin, it is important to understand the goals and objectives you wish to achieve then plan accordingly. Here is where you will lay the groundwork for an interactive component.
3. Establishing a clear call to action – It’s important for you to instruct your targets on what they need to do to receive what you’re offering, e.g. “Mail back this card to receive two free issues of our publication.” If it’s not clear what you’re asking your audience to do, chances are no action will be taken.
4. It’s all about the data – Good data and effective use of that data are the key building blocks to delivering targeted content that ultimately leads to a positive ROI. It’s crucial to determine where you get this data from (i.e. collected directly from customers or other micro-level activity, or purchased from a list provider) and how you’ll use the data to build profiles to more accurately deliver mail in the form that the targets prefer to receive it.
Are you wanting to increase ROI on your current direct mail program, or trying to decide if direct mail will be an effective marketing tool for your business? You are surely not alone. Direct mail still plays a strong role in modern communications; it has simply evolved like the rest of our industry. One way to deliver the desired results and overall success, for you and your clients, is by adding an interactive layer to your direct mail campaign.
With our Ricoh printers, we can ensure that these devices will be able to handle your direct mail promotions while maintaining quality in your print.