Direct mail is HUGE opportunity area for online retailers. Unfortunately, businesses often dismiss direct mail as too expensive. Too often online retailers rely too much on other marketing channels like email and organic search engine traffic, due to the low cost nature of the medium. Admittedly, this is easy to do.
It is important to realize that fortunes were built through the use of direct mail across all industries. For retailers, it is a proven media – think catalog companies’ successes like Lands End, of-the-month clubs, niche brick-and-mortar stores and more. In fact, I am aware of several pure-play online retailers that have recently and successfully launched print catalogs to great return-on-investment and increased market share in this down economy.
So we are on the same page, direct mail is printed material delivered directly into the physical mailbox. Usually, it is delivered via the post office but some marketers use other services too like UPS or FedEx.
Direct mail comes in many different formats – some typical (see below) and some not so typical – I have heard of sending watermelons, bricks, 3D shapes (like a mini trash can or a boomerang) and more.
Typical formats of direct mail for retailers include:
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The competitive advantage to any online retailer with a strong direct mail program is significant. Advantages include:
Finding New Customers:
- Tap into other companies’ customer lists – larger companies have their customer list for rent. So, if you are competing with a particular company, their customer list may be available to you for rent. Also, some similar companies or even direct competitors use a third party company to pool their customers’ data for direct marketing purposes. This could be a great cost-effective way to acquire new customers.
- Less clutter – as other businesses cut back on budgets on traditional media like direct mail, your mailings can stand out in your customers mind when they open their mailbox.
Driving Repeat Business:
- Building strong relationships with current customers - direct mail can allow you to speak to your customers at the right time with the right message or offer unlike any other media. Email is great, but the inbox is cluttered. If you can get your direct mail opened and read by your customers, you can establish a strong relationship that will lead to improved customer loyalty and more referrals to your business.
- Segmentation of efforts for targeted campaigns – this is often the secret sauce to establishing a strong relationship with current customers.
If you are new to direct mail best practices, then you might want to start with a direct mail campaign to your most loyal customers. If the return-on-investment is there, you might have a winning campaign and only then, try to roll it out to other targeted customer segments.
Here are nine proven campaign ideas for your current customers:
- Welcome campaign
- Happy Birthday campaign
- It has been a while since your last order campaign
- Private Sale (limited-time)
- VIP Customer Event
- Refer a friend and get $15 off your next order
- Editorial site event – e.g. “Customer Favorites for Summer 2010″
- Friends & Family event
- Sneak peek event
The ideas are infinite…
QUICK TIP:
One very practical tip that is well documented is that the use of multiple media improves customer response. For retailers, this means that sending emails and direct mail to reinforce your marketing message can improve the lift (or response) of your entire campaign.
If you have a special valuable offer, say a Friends & Family Sale Event, then try to get that message in front of your customers in as many ways as possible for the best response. You will like the results!
MORE ABOUT DIRECT MAIL:
Direct mail is a huge discussion, not able to be effectively covered in this e-book – there are sections of your local bookstore dedicated to this stuff! But, I wanted to give you enough in this section to get you aware and thinking about this powerful marketing channel. Don’t make the mistake of dismissing direct mail as too expensive for my business. It is not about the cost, it is about the return on investment!
Unlike other marketing efforts such as search engine optimization and paid search efforts where smart competitors can view your entire efforts and in effect, reverse engineer your efforts, the details of a targeted direct mail program are “under the radar”.
Herein lies a great competitive advantage!
Here’s to your online (I mean, offline) success,
David
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