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The Top 5 Direct Mailing Best Practices
As consumers move their media preferences toward
customized, one-to-one vehicles such as iPods,
satellite radio and TiVo®, marketers are challenged
in managing multi-channel messaging opportunities.
That’s why mailstream marketing – the direct mailing
of marketing materials that lead to other channels –
continues to be the fastest way to optimize customer
communications.
Traditional mail has maintained a great deal of
usefulness, relevance and profit potential in the
marketing mix. According to the Cable &
Telecommunications Association, 70 percent of
American consumers prefer to receive advertisements
and promotions by mail. Letters, including
transactional mail, constitute a $36 billion dollar
industry in the U.S. alone, and the entire global
mailing industry – including shipping packages –
tops some $900 billion.
Mailstream marketing?
According to John Schloff, vice president of
marketing for Pitney Bowes Document Messaging
Technologies, mailstream marketing is arguably the
fastest way to optimize both B2B and B2C customer
communications management. Printed mail, whether
postcards, letters, catalogues or brochures, can all
be used as catalysts to drive web site traffic.
Communication management
Proper customer communication management is
necessary for effective one-to-one marketing with
mixed media that merges digital and physical
channels. Direct mail today already comprises
data-rich systems and processes that provide mailers
with options for making their customer, production
and channel intelligence more comprehensive and more
precise than ever before.
Personalizing everything
Brands that use the traditional mail channel have a
particular taste for highly personalized, relevant
marketing to current clients. Financial statements,
mortgage bills, credit card statements, insurance
premiums, even drivers’ license renewal forms, all
arrive directly through the consumer’s front door to
deliver timely and useful information.
Here’s five hot tips to optimize mailstream
marketing efforts:
1. Leverage customer intelligence
Use your data intelligently to create more
personalized messages that enable cross-selling and
up-selling opportunities, and to ultimately foster
customer loyalty.
2. Deliver only relevant communications
Your message is traveling with an important personal
document (e.g. a bank statement, or an insurance
policy’s explanation of benefits). Be respectful of
the medium by keeping the marketing message aligned
with the purpose of the document.
3. Apply the highest data quality practices
The shortest route to the waste basket is a wrong
address or a misspelled name.
4. Mandate the highest mailing accuracy and
integrity
Especially with personalized transactional mail and
inserts. Misdirected mail can put customers off the
brand completely. The wrong marketing message – or
worse, the wrong personal document to the wrong
person – is a far greater problem than just creating
a bad impression.
5. Practice event marketing
Be opportunistic about events in your target
customer’s life such as birthdays, graduations, home
moves, weddings and births. Sending helpful
promotions around life events can create close
connections with customers.
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Melissa Data
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