If you had to identify one of the most critical best practices in direct mail today, what would it be? Would it be multi-channel marketing? If not, perhaps it’s time to rethink.
[dropcap]M[/dropcap]any marketers shy away from multi-channel marketing because it sounds expensive and complicated. But it doesn’t have to be. In fact, multi-channel marketing can be as simple as following up a print piece with an e-mail.
E-mail follow-ups to print are a simple, inexpensive and effective way to boost response rates for very little extra cost. But the benefits go even further. One marketer recently embarked on a personalized URL campaign, in part, to gather missing e-mail addresses because it had found that, when it had an e-mail address for its customers, those customers tended to purchase $1,000 more in services per year.
Why would having an e-mail address make such a difference? Let’s look at two reasons.
- Customers who provide e-mail addresses tend to be more engaged with your company. Not that providing the e-mail address, in itself, makes the customer more engaged. It’s because they are more engaged that they are more likely to provide this information. An e-mail address can be an indicator of engagement.
- Customers who provide their e-mail address open themselves to multiple marketing “touches” from your company. The industry is rife with case studies that tell the story. Multiple touches mean higher response rates.
By combining variable printing with e-mail and an online registration process, one association, for example, was able to triple the attendance at its annual summer conference. In another example, a software manufacturer sent a follow-up e-mail to non-responders to a print campaign, personalized using the same rules as the print mailer, and sales of its targeted products jumped 81%. The company also exceeded its sales projections by 13%.
Of course, there are other elements to successful direct mail campaigns beyond using the dual channels of print and e-mail. Still, this combination is a key aspect of many campaigns’ success. It’s no wonder that, if you follow the blog talk, the case studies and the business media, direct mail with e-mail follow-up has become almost the de facto standard.
Don’t have your customers’ e-mail addresses? No worries. E-mail addresses are easy enough to get. Web site registration, personalized URL campaigns and e-mail list purchases are all techniques that you can use to gather the missing information. Talk to us about expanding your next campaign to include e-mail.
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