Remember when communicating “directly” with prospects and customers meant buying mailing lists by geography, creating artwork, and printing thousands of pieces? And customization meant placing a mailing label on the piece (or, if you were really classy, ink-jetting the name on)? Average cost per piece could easily exceeded $3 and a “great” response was a measly 1.5%.
Unfortunately, that isn’t the distant past. My mailbox is packed daily with junk trying to grab my attention. And you know what? It doesn’t. With the number of online direct marketing options available today, I’m amazed that traditional direct mail hasn’t gone the way of the dinosaur.
With any of these options, you can reach a far more refined audience in a space where they’re intentionally engaging (rather than amid a stack of passive junk they didn’t ask for):
1. HTML emails: Simple, inexpensive and highly effective. The last campaign we ran for a client was less than 60 cents each including list purchase of very targeted contacts, creative, and distribution. Reponse rate was over 12%.
2. LinkedIn: Sharing content on LinkedIn is an effective way of reaching specific audiences. By belonging to groups, your messages can be posted on the group’s forum and shared with the entire membership. By creating a corporate account or a new group, you control who receives your messages on a one-by-one basis.
3. Online communities/forums: While a bit time consuming, online communities and forums are a great opportunity to directly communicate with discreet audiences who have a specific need, attitude or reason for being interested in your messages.
4. Facebook & Twitter: These venues are great places to announce promotions, product launches, and specials, or to communicate very specific information you want those following you to know. It’s a bit more of a challenge to create push using these vehicles because the point is to build community with those who already have an affinity for you or your reason for being.
5. Facebook ads: While not nearly as effective as HTML emails, they are highly targeted based on the member’s age, interests, geography, memberships, etc.
I challenge anyone still pushing direct mail as a viable, relevant marketing tool to stand it up against any of these (along with a projected ROI) and make a case for it. Goodbye direct mail dinosaur.
