3 Reasons Print and Direct Mail Marketing — Yes, Print! — Can Help You Improve Marketing Strategies
10/9/2017 Ellie Behling
Today’s marketers must connect to consumers on a deeply personal level, through an ever-growing number of communication channels. The challenge is syncing these connections across every delivery method.
While digital channels have provided new opportunities to reach consumers like never before, it hasn’t negated traditional channels. Many marketers are finding traditional methods, like direct mail marketing, can complement and enhance digital campaigns, and improve marketing strategies. Here’s why.
1. Printed materials break through the digital clutter.
As digital advertising has exploded, consumers are blocking it out — sometimes literally. Software to block digital ads has gained traction. Digital ads and emails, while proven to be effective, bombard us all day.
Traditional channels such as printed direct mail marketing have emerged as a way to differentiate a brand’s message. Response rates to direct mail are the highest since 2003, according to benchmarks from the Data and Marketing Association.
As volume of postal mail goes down, response rates go up. John Mitchison, head of Preference Services, Compliance, and Legal for the UK’s DMA, told PrintWeek: “We all know that many brands have moved their spend from traditional to digital media, which has left a marvelous opportunity for brands choosing mail.”
Brands have moved their spend from traditional to digital media, which has left an opportunity for brands choosing mail
2. Consumers prefer print when away from their computers.
As digital fatigue plagues consumers — particularly the coveted buying demographic of Millennials — a personalized piece of direct mail can really stand out and help improve your overall marketing strategy. In fact, when consumers are away from their computer screens, 47% prefer print marketing. That’s 10 percentage points higher than those who prefer email on their phones, radio ads, and text messages (MarketingSherpa).
3. Marketing needs a well-rounded diet.
Brands spent more than a third of their media spend on digital, and this percentage is expected to grow, according to eMarketer. For the first time ever, marketers now spend more on digital than television.
But digital is not a one-stop solution. Brands demand return on that spend, and are considering reallocation back to traditional media. P&G’s Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard has been vocal about holding digital accountable to uphold standardized viewability metrics. “The days of giving digital a pass are over,” he said at an Interactive Advertising Bureau event in January.
For a well-balanced marketing mix, the Advertising Research Foundation recently recommended an optimal advertising spend of 22% spend in digital, and the rest in traditional channels.
Digital + print can work together!
When seamlessly working together, traditional and digital channels can enhance a marketing campaign. The key for marketers is to send consistent messaging through multiple channels.
Direct mail marketing can now integrate with digital campaigns through marketing automation software. For example, when using the new RRD print app for Oracle Eloqua users, marketers can create and manage personalized communication for offline and online channels in one place. Imagine a world where a consumer opens an email and it triggers a direct mail marketing piece to be sent to their home with coordinated, personalized messaging.
Marrying print with digital allows marketers to reap the ROI of both platforms, and for consumers to receive multiple options for how to communicate with your brand.
Contact us to learn more about the TO Print app and how to integrate print into your multichannel marketing mix.
This post was originally published October 9, 2017.