We spend a lot of time on this blog talking about adding direct mail automation to email workflows. But what about integrating direct mail and social media?

With millions of people engaging in social media channels daily—and a plethora of sophisticated targeting tools—digital marketers are focusing on social media more and more. However, rarely are single-channel marketing campaigns the most effective. To get the best response, integrate social media platforms with other channels online and off, including direct mail.

Direct Mail + Social Media = A Perfect Match

Because consumers engage with a variety of channels daily, modern growth marketing is all about communicating across multiple channels. In fact, brands that use omni-channel marketing retain about 91 percent more customers than brands that don’t. And while direct mail and social media are vastly different from one another, when integrated, they complement each other in a number of ways.

When used together in cohesive campaigns, you can capitalize on the high-engagement and targeting within social media and the tangible, emotional appeal of direct mail.  

Still, you might wonder, how can you integrate direct mail and social media strategies? The opportunities are nearly endless, especially if you automate postcards with a modern direct mail automation provider like Inkit and your CRM.

Click here to schedule a demo, design and send a direct mail postcard with Inkit today.

Here are a few ideas to get you started designing social media + direct mail campaigns.

10 Ways to Sync Postcards and Social Media Marketing Campaigns

1. Generate social media buzz about a direct mail offer.

If there’s one thing that social media is great at, it’s being a digital hype man. Use social media campaigns to get people excited about your postcard offer shortly before it goes out.

Pro tip: Run a direct mail split test on this concept before doing a widespread roll-out. Send a mailer to people who’ve seen a Facebook tease and to those who haven’t, and compare results.

2. Post direct mail ads to social media sites for greater visibility.

You’ve already designed the ad, why not share it on social media for even more views? While direct mail and social media may seem like polar opposite channels, similar design and copy rules apply for both.

3. Include social media icons on postcards to encourage shares.

Social sharing can give your direct mail campaign massive momentum. Your postcard campaign might even go viral with the right social media sharing incentive. (Check out this Stein Mart case study).

A simple way to take customers to your social media channels is by creating QR codes on your postcards. If you don’t know where to start, consider generating a QR Code with Beaconstac’s QR Code Generator. You can go beyond and be creative about it. Capture your customer’s attention with dynamic QR codes and be sure to increase visits to your social media platforms. Your customers can simply scan the QR code on your postcard and get directly to the destination point.

4. Merge direct mail lists with Facebook ads.

Get closer to your audience with this strategy. Facebook encourages marketers to upload their direct mailing list to its Facebook Business platform, where it will match the information to its users allowing you to run hyper-targeted social ads.

Inkit has a wide range of apps and web services integrations, such as HubSpot, Drip, Iterable, and many others. With just a few clicks, you now can add direct mail to any automation workflow you build, A/B test, and measure the results of your integrated, cross-channel campaigns.

5. Build better direct mail lists with Facebook.

Use Facebook ads to get prospects to a landing page, where you can offer an incentive to capture a physical mailing address. Then, send a mailer with the same look as your Facebook ad to benefit from cross-channel branding.

6. Use social media analytics to refine direct mail targeting.

Social apps allow marketers to take a deep dive into demographics, behaviors and click-through data. You can use these tools to gain valuable insight into the consumers you’re targeting online and off. Merge this data with your CRM and factor it into direct mail triggers and decisions. It’s easier to gather offline information about your customers, such as mail address with the help of social media channels. If the person has already clicked through your ads, it means they are interested in your brand. Use this chance to target them with mail pieces.

7. Improve postcards with social media tests.

Leverage the ease and relatively low costs of social media ads to learn what content performs best with different segments. This will help your company to focus your direct mail marketing efforts in the right direction. Then, use this insight to send the right message to the right consumer via direct mail automation.

The same rule can be applied to postcards design. Use different designs in your social media ads or posts, see which work the best for your audience, which receives more likes, clicks or other metrics that are useful for your campaign planning, and apply the same design to your direct mail postcards.

8. Draw from social analytics to personalize direct mail.

Using social media analytics, you can send direct mail that is highly tailored to your audience. You can reach the right audience with relevant messaging and even include personalized content drawn from consumers’ social media profiles.

9. Go big with a cross-channel product launch: postcards and social media.

Use social media postings to count down to a product launch, and then send a postcard when the product hits your stores. Don’t forget to bring engagement back to social by including social links and/or a QR code on the postcard.

10. Test direct mail geo-targets via social first.

Many companies send direct mail to branch out into new geographic locations. But before you buy an address list to mail a large-scale broadcast postcard to an entire zip code, do a little research using Facebook. Send a promotion to Facebook users in a zip code you’re thinking of targeting, and review the platform’s performance analytics to narrow your target audience before investing in direct mail.  

Direct marketing and social media may exist in two completely different worlds, digital and print, but they perform very well hand-in-hand. Use these channels together to optimize your overall marketing strategy at each stage, from generating brand awareness and engagement, to boosting response rate and gaining customer insight.

Are you ready to design a direct mail campaign with social media channels in mind? Click hereto learn more about Inkit’s direct mail automation software.