An omnichannel marketing strategy places brands nearly everywhere customers are. They pop up wherever people put their attention – while they watch television, at the movie theater, as they browse social media and the internet.
You don’t have to look far to find a brand that’s gone omnichannel. Think about how often a certain insurance brand with royal-blue block lettered logo, their Australian pitch-Gecko, and Flo the bundling enthusiast continually crosses your view. Geico’s merry band sets up shop on all digital, media channels, print magazines, and in mailboxes – it is impossible to miss them.
Why go to the trouble? Not everyone who sees Geico today will be in the market for personal insurance, but when there’s a need, one of its catchy ads or recognizable logos will probably be there.
If you’re doing a version of multi-channel marketing and wonder how it can be more effective, you’re not alone. You may even wonder whether direct mail belongs in your omnichannel marketing strategy. Let’s examine what it is, whether to include direct mail and how to build a winning plan that can be adjusted to your budget.
What is an Omnichannel Marketing Strategy?
A key to an effective omnichannel marketing strategy is to create the same experience across all platforms. When a prospective customer sees your brand in an email, as a website banner, or in the mail, they identify them as belonging to your business.
Techtarget defines omnichannel marketing as a sales approach that creates an integrated, seamless customer experience, whether the customer is shopping from a desktop or mobile computer, by telephone, in a physical store location.
Key elements include utilizing the same artwork, colors, and tagline across all channels – and similar or the same messaging. By expanding the message through broader platforms, you extend your reach and create greater impressions.
Does Direct Mail Fit into Your Omnichannel Marketing Strategy?
Yes. Direct mail is already an effective way to connect with customers and generate new sales. Its staying power alone is worth the investment. When you integrate a seamless message across several other channels it strengthens your return on investment.
A study shows that adding direct mail to an omnichannel marketing campaign boosts performance 63% if it’s well-branded, integrated, and personalized.
Considering the overall effectiveness of direct mail, an omnichannel approach offers an exceptional return on investment while remaining an excellent method to stay in front of your clients. Here some recent stellar stats about direct mail:
House mail lists get great response rates
If you use direct mail, you probably have a “house” list. According to data gathered by the Data and Marketing Association (DMA) and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) in 2018, the response rate for house lists is 9% compared to 4.9% for prospects’ lists.
And, if it’s like the recent trajectory, it will continue to get better. The DMA notes that there has been a significant increase in response rates between 2015 to 2018; 125% for house lists and a whopping 400% for prospect lists.
Direct mail gets noticed
Although email may be a bit cheaper and easier, it’s easy to miss. It can end up in the spam folder or look just like the other annoying email that’s been trolling you for months.
According to the DMA, about 42.2% of direct mail is read or scanned because the recipients go through the mail.
Mail has decreased so your mail stands out
Since the popularity of digital marketing, mail has decreased steadily. This gives direct mail marketers a tremendous advantage – less competition means you get noticed more often. Take advantage of this unique space.
Mail recipients purchased 28% more items than those who don’t get mail
The fact that mail is kept much longer than email could contribute to this statistic. What marketer wouldn’t be happy with that conversion rate?
Oversized packaging gets extra attention
Although you can expect a respectable response rate from postcards, (4.25%) and catalogs (3.9%), the biggest response rate belongs to oversized envelopes at 5%, according to these statistics.
Now that you can see that its results put direct mail into most winning marketing campaigns, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty and discover how to integrate it into your omnichannel marketing strategy.
Creating an Omnichannel Marketing Strategy with Direct Mail
While you understand how to create an effective marketing campaign, omnichannel requires you to expand a consistent marketing message across multiple marketing platforms. The idea is to create an experience your customers will recognize as belonging to you when they are online, receive mail, and are watching or listening to broadcast media.
Assuming you already have a marketing message that you want to share, let’s choose the channels you’d like to use to market your business, product, or service. Here are common choices:
- Social media
- Print media
- Media advertising
What goes into the omnichannel marketing plan?
Then, choose the vehicles that you’ll be using and how frequently you’ll use them. Here are examples of a quarterly campaign:
1. Mail – Oversized postcards
a. 1 postcard for a house list
b. 1 postcard for prospect list with a new buyer special offer
c. Personalize all postcards
d. Sent every other week (6 mailings)
2. Email – Drip campaign with 4 bi-weekly emails
a. 1 email for current customers
b. 1 email for prospects with a new buyer special offer
c. Emailed every other week with new subject lines
3. Social media – Facebook campaign
a. Ad for current customers (12 ads)
b. Ad for prospects with new buyer special offer (12 ads)
c. Posted 3 – 4 times weekly
4. Print media – Local monthly magazine
a. ¼ page ad run 3 times
Controlling your budget
While this may all seem too labor-intensive and potentially expensive the results you get from a well-executed campaign with clear messaging, great branding, personalization, and an unforgettable offer will be worth it.
You may have noticed that the broadcast media didn’t make it into the final list. That’s because the cost of running a 30-second ad can be expensive unless you want it to air at 2:00 a.m., especially if you’re in a larger metropolitan area. Don’t forget to factor in the cost of producing the commercial.
To keep within budget, you may want to eliminate the media ads in favor of a more targeted advertising platform, like mail.
To further keep your budget below the breaking point, print advertising may also be on the chopping block. A national magazine cites the cost of print advertising typically ranges between $500 and $20,000. While well-targeted print ads can be effective and exceed the staying power of mail, your customer must find them among the publication’s many pages. With postcards – the message is crystal clear.
Executing Your Plan
After the decision has been made about which channels to use, if you haven’t created the marketing, it’s time to do that. Then, look at the timeframe that your campaign will run and determine when each element of the plan will be deployed.
While you may have an in-house team to create the campaign message and execute the social media and email portions of the printing, mail lists, and mailing requires special skills.
Choosing an organization that understands the importance of direct mail and how it fits into an omnichannel marketing approach is essential.
One Stop Mail has specialists on staff who can create a customized prospect mail list to give you the best opportunity to get new customers. They can also cleanse a non-performing house list to get more of the direct mail-omnichannel marketing benefits your business deserves.
In addition, their printers understand that a vibrant, quality mailer has the best opportunity of delivering your message to your recipient. And, if you need graphic design help to ensure your campaign design transitions seamlessly to a postcard, One Stop Mail can deliver that, too.
To be successful, your omnichannel marketing strategy must be on-point and delivered to absolute perfection – especially your direct mail. If you’re looking for a partner who is committed to the success of each mailing, contact One Stop Mail at 602.233.3003.