A recent article published on the Forbes website talked about a current “Direct Mail Revival” and how marketers should be taking advantage of the trend. Although we whole-heartedly agree that marketers should be testing offline marketing strategies, here at Snowball our perspective is a bit different. We’re an agency solely focused on direct mail as a channel so our experience is a lot more centralized. Here we outline some of the trends that we are seeing with our client base so far this year and topics that are being discussed in the offline marketing space.
1. “Tradigital” Marketing
This term has been getting more traction in the last 2 -3 years. It means traditional marketing tactics integrated with digital advertising. Direct mail falls into the traditional realm along with newspapers, magazines, TV, and radio. There has been a marked slowdown in the growth of Digital Advertising with privacy and Ad-Fatigue playing a large role. Marketers need to explore other channels and incorporate a more diverse strategy. We are recommending bringing offline and online strategies together to meet prospects where they are and boost response. Other added benefits are; bringing consistency to brand look and feel, offers, and incentives.
2. Cadence & Surround Sound
We’re also increasingly testing the cadence of communications. We’re helping our clients figure out the best time to make their initial approach and how and when to follow up or remind prospects about an offer. This also includes dove-tailing the physical mail with email or out-of-home campaigns to amplify the message and increase engagement.
3. Postage Increases Driving the Switch to More Cost-Effective Formats
With US postage continuing to rise on a biannual basis, the post office continues to offer incentives to encourage marketers to use the channel. Because of this, we have seen our clients trying to maximize their marketing dollars and opt for more cost-effective formats such as postcards or bi-fold self-mailers.
4. Sensory and Tactile Effects
One of the incentives on offer from the post office is the Tactile/Sensory discount, so we are seeing a lot more, soft-touch coatings, foil stamps, textured paper, and even some scratch and sniff effects. All these can likely qualify for the discount, though with DM’s long tail, we will need some time to review the effects on response.
5. Analysis & Reporting
As those postage costs increase marketers are of course focused on making their budget work hard and that means working smart. In order to work smart you need insight to know what’s working or predict what will work. Creating an informed strategy is where that starts with building your testing plan to answer key audience questions or response metrics. Once the campaign is complete, it’s important to be able to consume results and insights, quickly and cleanly so that you not only have a clear understanding of what’s working, but that you can build the learnings into the next campaign cycle and validate your developing hypothesis.
At Snowball we’re working to deliver key metrics via our custom Tableau dashboard and meeting our clients where they are on how they want to ingest learnings.If you would like to learn more about how an offline strategy could amplify your digital efforts, please don’t hesitate to be in touch. We look forward to hearing from you.
