Direct Mail Marketing: Key Trends and Techniques for Effective Campaigns

It's been a long time since direct mail entered the world, and since its inception, it has radically evolved, by implementing all kinds of strategies and tools that are going to make it even more effective.

People who have been leveraging it, have become aware of the fact that there's no use in relying solely on the old methods. Even though there's nothing particularly bad about them, as a marketer, or business owner you simply need to keep up with the latest inventions, including the ones that are related to direct mail marketing.

According to numerous reports, direct mail marketing is still very progressive and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down, and if you would like to get familiar with all the trends that are flooding it, then just stay tuned to find out more!

In a world where people are continuously bombarded with generic stuff, it's time to step away from them and opt for something that's a bit more "unusual", yet a lot more efficient. This refers to personalization. It doesn't matter whether you'll do it with custom direct mail lists or any other tool, what matters is to fully embrace it. For instance, tools like Mailmunch can help you create personalized marketing campaigns that stand out.  Ask yourself, do you honestly think that recipients love receiving mails that look like something they’ve seen a thousand times?

The answer is no! And that's the situation with a vast majority of them. They love it when the messages they get are somewhat personal, even if it's a mail in their mailbox. Consequently, as an aspiring entrepreneur, you need to focus on sending mails—whether you extract emails from LinkedIn or use CRM data—that align with your customer’s tastes, preferences, and past purchases.

By doing so, the message you want to send will become a lot more relevant to them. So how can you accomplish that? There are several steps that need to be taken, and they include the following:

Keeping up with the newest trends doesn't just mean accepting them. You need to apply them as well if you want to ensure your marketing campaigns reach your audience. Consequently, the next step that you must take is to optimize your mail spending.

Do not perceive this as something that’s optional, but rather obligatory. So what does it mean? It means that it’s about time to invest your money in tools that are going to help you skimp on costs when it’s time to run your marketing campaigns.

Furthermore, you should reset your direct mail campaigns in order to offer predictable control of not only your processes but expenses too! If you want to be successful in this endeavor, then you should properly manage your data, not the other way around.

There are a couple of solutions that you can utilize for these purposes, and if you decide to do so, then you should use them to:

Many companies that have relied on direct mail have decided to integrate it with a variety of different channels because they finally realized how beneficial it is. If you combine direct mail with various digital marketing strategies, you will create a very powerful experience that's going to encourage your consumers to engage with you and your brand even more!

Speaking of this, you should also consider employing direct mail printers because they are capable of providing services that merge direct mail with all kinds of digital channels. This typically involves things like personalized URLs, QR codes, or promotional codes that will drive more traffic to your online platforms and websites.

For example, Uniqode's QR Code Generator makes it easy to create custom, trackable QR codes that you can print on direct mailers to boost engagement and measure campaign performance across online channels

Back in the days, when business owners were just getting started with direct mail, they would send them out, hoping that they'd get the job done. Then they didn't have any tools that would let them know if their direct marketing campaign was successful.

Luckily, things have changed in the meantime, with the advent of different tools that are designed to help you track your mail, starting from delivery status to engagement metrics, and many other elements, and that’s all in real time.

This made things so much simpler for the marketers because these solutions allowed them to alter their campaigns as they went, making sure that every single penny they spent on their campaigns wasn't wasted.

Additionally, tracking tools help you determine who is opening the mail you sent, what their reaction to it, and whether they are following through on the call to action. By virtue of these tools, you'll get a real picture of your strategy and you'll know exactly whether anything needs to be done to improve it. 

You have probably noticed that more and more people are becoming eco-conscious because they truly care about the environment, and the chances are, your customers care about it too! Therefore, as an entrepreneur, you need to raise awareness as far as this is concerned and you can do this through direct mail.

If you do this, you'll attract even more consumers because they'll appreciate all your efforts and dedication to making this world a better place not just for us, but also for future generations. So how can you "convince" them how eco-conscious you and your brand really are?

There are lots of things that you can do, and one of them is to send a note in your mail saying that this mail piece is one hundred percent recyclable and printed out with eco-friendly inks.

The direct mail industry knows how essential it is to be updated with all the latest trends that have hit not only this industry but the entire world as well. That's precisely why you need to incorporate some of them if you want to get that "edge" on your competition.