Came across this great article on the Huffington Post site about why Direct Mail remains relevant. Much of it talk about things we've already covered in this blog, but there was one line that really struck me – "... there is less direct mail going out than ever before ...". Could this really be true, I wondered. And the answer is yes, but it's a good thing. Here's why.
We've talked a lot about DM spend going up over recent years, having bottomed out about 2011. The sector has been resurgent since then, driven by advances in technology, enhanced integration with online channels, and the increasing saturation of email marketing. So how could the volumes have gone down? The answer is targeting.
In the old days, Direct Mail was the marketing equivalent of the proverbial blunderbuss in a Yosemite Sam cartoon. You would shoot it off in the general direction of your audience and hope that a small percentage of your mailers, masquerading as lead shot, would hit home and do their work.
Nowadays, with postage and print prices on the rise, it's all about effectively targeting each mailer in order to maximise the response rate, something that has been made much easier by the ability to filter and segment databases in much more sophisticated ways. Aided by the fact that most serious mail, such as bills and bank statements, has now decamped online, it's thought that almost 80% of people now open all their mail, so if you get the recipient and the offer right, you're half way there.
In addition to targeting, personalisation is the key to delivering ROI in the modern Direct Mail sector. Response rates for an effectively targeted and personalised campaign can hit 20%, which is a hit rate that could only be dreamed of a few years ago, and which online channels could never hope to match.
For betting and gaming businesses, Direct Mail offers the chance to stand out from the crowd. If 100 companies send an email, less than 10% of that will send something in the post. So get it right and you already have a much better chance of achieving a result. The key is to make targeting and personalisation work together, along with the right incentive and design, to ensure your campaign hits home.
Find out how we can make Direct Mail work for your business by contacting the Secure Direct Mail team on 01624 698488 or email securedirectmail@iompost.com.