The recent survey shows that snail mail regains its position among the most effective marketing strategies. 61% of marketers admit that sending personalized postcards is a powerful way to reach target audiences. Additionally, according to DMA’s Response Rate Report, mail pieces boast a 5.1% average response rate, whereas the response rates of email, paid search, and social media are lower than 1%. Nevertheless, despite the ample benefits, there are still numerous bumps on the road to effective triggered direct mail. If not used properly, personalized postcards or catalogs may be costly, sluggish, and poorly targeted. In the amateur’s hands, mail marketing and digital printing may seem time- and effort-consuming. Besides, it may be difficult to synchronize mail with other marketing channels to create a successful triggered direct mail campaign.
Fortunately, thanks to automated direct mail functionality, sending postcards, letters, or other mail pieces can be easy. Professional tools provided by third-party services take care of most mailing-related tasks. Moreover, they make traditional direct mail highly personalized and targeted. With automated direct mail, you get a chance to run triggered campaigns that have shown to be the most effective. Trigger-based marketing allows establishing contact with potential customers when they are most likely to hear and notice you. Do you still hesitate over using automated direct mail? Discover how it can upgrade your marketing efforts.
Why Automated and Triggered Direct Mail is Good for Your Marketing?
Automated Direct Mail Benefit #1: Automated Direct Mail is Aligned with Digital Channels
Without direct mail automation, you won’t be able to connect your digital marketing with offline advertising. Manually organized direct mail requires immense effort and investment to be trigger-based. Therefore, automated printing and delivery tailored to specific needs and situations is the only right solution. Besides, to run effective omni-channel marketing, you will also need a CRM marketing automation platform. Such automation allows you to use a single database with customer information to synchronize your marketing efforts. Triggered direct mail, emails, social media, online ads, and other channels seamlessly complement each other for maximum results. So, when choosing a direct mail automation tool, make sure it integrates with various CRM systems. The solution offered by Inkit supports Drip, HubSpot, Sailthru, Iterable, and other integrations.
Automated Direct Mail Benefit #2: Triggered Direct Mail Builds a Deeper Connection with Customers
Using triggered direct mail, you can focus on customer relationships. This way, mail pieces are delivered only when recipients are ready to start communication. How can you understand when they’re ready? Your triggers should be based on their previous actions, like opening your website, placing an order, starting a subscription. Customers feel that you care about their preferences and adapt to their needs. As a result, your connection becomes stronger and these people are more likely to become your loyal ambassadors.
Automated Direct Mail Benefit #3: Automated Direct Mail Increases ROI
As it was already mentioned, non-automated mail requires much more investment than automated direct mail. In the former case, you cannot measure the results, calculate your expenses, and predict direct income. You could also waste a lot of resources for finding designers, printing houses, and experimenting with various USPS programs. Conversely, mail marketing automation provides a clear understanding of your expenditures and optimizes the cost of digital printing and delivery. Moreover, some direct mail tools allow A/B testing of mail pieces so you can choose an optimum design and print volume.
Automated Direct Mail Benefit #4: Triggered Direct Mail is Effective for Customer Reactivation
Modern consumers are bewildered by the choice of companies offering similar products or services. Even if they have bought from you before, they can easily switch to a new vendor or forget about your company. Such dormant customers comprise 20-25% of your clients and are very likely to purchase. How can you make them active? Send direct mail to remind about their store credit, offer a discount voucher, or wish them a Merry Christmas. Make sure to tailor messages to specific customer’s needs. Unlike email or ad retargeting, personalized postcards have better chances to be noticed and deliver higher response rates.
Automated Direct Mail Benefit #5. Automated Direct Mail Ensures Seamless Customer Journey
Direct mail can come in handy at any stage of a customer journey, from building awareness to retention. For instance, you can provide an overview of your services in a nice postcard or stir up interest by sending a personalized catalog. Once a potential customer is familiar with your assortment, nudge them into placing an order with a call-to-action. Finally, nurture your buyers mailing them vouchers or a special loyalty program newsletter. Note that you won’t be able to ensure a smooth customer journey without mail automation. Automated solutions allow you to set triggers and deliver the necessary mail piece at the right moment.
Automated Direct Mail Benefit #6. Triggered Direct Mail Reduces Cart Abandonment
Trigger-based direct mail is a real catch for online stores that need to increase sales. E-commerce websites lose a large share of income because of cart abandonment. 75.6% of potential buyers who refuse to proceed with the payment result in an $18 billion loss annually. These users browse your online store, choose the items they like, and then, for some reason, leave. You can try to return potential customers with triggered direct mail offering a discount or free shipping if they finish the purchase. It will effectively supplement exit pop-ups and abandoned cart emails. Moreover, triggered direct mail has a better response rate and gives customers time to rethink your offer. They have a chance to put your discount voucher aside and use it later when they are ready.
Automated Direct Mail Benefit #7: Automated Direct Mail Makes Marketing More Personal
Mail campaigns create the feeling of special care that most customers adore. Still, it may be difficult to design and deliver large volumes of unique mail pieces without professional tools. Automated direct mail services, like Inkit, expand personalization capabilities. First, you can benefit from variable data printing to include names, surnames, and other relevant customer information on your mail pieces. Just upload a CSV file or integrate a CRM list to automatically add the right data. In addition to variable data printing, you can personalize your mailing based on customer behavioral patterns recorded by a CRM. For instance, the direct mail tool can automatically send catalogs once a customer starts a subscription or clicks the Agree button.
Automated Direct Mail Benefit #8. Automated Direct Mail Is Easy to Track
Most people who refuse to use direct mail in omni-channel marketing complain about one persistent problem. They still believe that mail campaigns are difficult to track. Sounds familiar? Consider automated direct mail as an ultimate solution. When users dial a phone number, use a coupon code, or scan a QR code on your mail piece, an integrated CRM will record the results. Also, thanks to the direct mail tool with CRM integration, you can learn the location, preferences, and device characteristics of the recipients.
Automated Direct Mail Benefit #9. Triggered Direct Mail Is Great for Any Target Audience
Despite a common misconception, the effectiveness of direct mail campaigns doesn’t drastically vary among age groups. For example, in the UK, over the last 6 months, 59% of people aged 18-34 took action in response to direct mail compared to 58% in the 55+ group. The only key difference is that the younger generation has trouble taking in the information printed on mail pieces. Make sure to use customization functionality offered by mail automation tools to adapt your mail to the needs of your target audience. With Inkit, you will use a custom postcard builder with ready-made professional templates to design memorable mail pieces. Try them out and split-test several mail options to choose optimum design and volume.
Automated Direct Mail Benefit #10. Automated Direct Mail Is Cost-Effective
Third-party automated tools backed up by professional mailing services can be a great support for your marketing campaign. These experts have already optimized the mailing process and made everything possible to cut expenditures. In case you organize a mail campaign on your own, you will have to hire a designer, order printing, and take the mail pieces to the postal service. The cost of all these processes will definitely exceed the pricing of automated direct mail services. Using Inkit for mail marketing automation, you will save your time and effort thanks to fully-automated printing and delivery.
Automated Direct Mail Benefit #11. Automated Direct Mail Is Both Proactive and Reactive
Automation is extremely helpful if you’d like to introduce a proactive approach in your direct mail marketing campaign. With the help of preliminary testing, you can prevent possible problems before they escalate. Choose a mailing partner with unlimited batch size and extensive customization capabilities to create the most suitable mail design. In addition, triggered direct mail can be used for reactive marketing. The created mail piece will be sent only after your customers complete a certain action.
Automated Direct Mail Benefit #12. Triggered Direct Mail Increases Customer Lifetime Value
Regular mail newsletters with attractive offers will help you nurture existing leads and encourage customers to stay loyal to your company. Based on the estimations, a new prospect is only 5-20% likely to purchase, whereas the probability for existing customers reaches 60-70%. Triggered direct mail relies on the available information about your target audience and additional detailed settings. This makes it highly effective for maintaining long-term customer relationships.
