I hear a lot of people tell me they think direct mail is dead, that everything is electronic these days. While there is some truth to that statement, that is exactly why you want to stick with direct mail.
Everyone else is going paperless.
Inboxes are overflowing. Mailboxes are not. Sometimes the easiest way to get someone’s attention is by taking the (marketing) road less travelled.
Avoid the Inbox Crowds and Get Noticed with Postcards
When was the last time you received a handwritten card? Maybe Christmas or your birthday?
When was the last time you received a handwritten card or note from a business?
Think about it.
Maybe you don’t remember ever getting one.
That’s what makes them so powerful. They stand out.
Many people will argue that paper products are wasteful. But there are tons of environmentally-friendly options including those made from recycled paper or business cards and the like with seeds embedded in the biodegradeable paper that can be planted.
While a letter, card, or postcard might get you noticed, that will only happen if you use them in an appealing and valuable way. Here are a few suggestions.
Coupons
One of the most common reasons people join newsletters, download apps, or give businesses their emails is to earn coupons and discounts. A coupon mailer can be a very effective way of getting more business. They can also be used for special sales, discounts, or BOGO offers.
If your offerings are online, you can incorporate a QR code that takes them directly to your site and applies the discount. With QR codes, you can make them one-use to eliminate multiple discounts and set expiration dates.
Introduction Cards
If your business is new or something has changed at your business, call attention to it with a postcard. Often driving purchases is about timing. If someone “discovers” you right at the time they need your services, you’ll likely score the sale.
Growing your business is all about recognition and top-of-mind awareness. The more you get your name out in front of them, the more they will think about you when they need what you offer.
Occasionally, a passerby may not even realize what kind of services you offer or products you sell. An introduction postcard can help them understand how your business may provide solutions and products they need.
Magnetic Reminder Cards
For a little extra money, you can add magnets to your postcards that can make them convenient reminders. This idea is perfect for businesses that set appointments like doctors, hairstylists, and dentists but it also works well for professionals you need on occasion like plumbers, real estate agents, and auto mechanics. In those cases, you can incorporate a calendar or a coupon to give them a reason to “hang” your postcard up.
Incentivizing addressees to hold on to your mailer is critical to staying top of mind and giving them something of value (like a calendar, home team sports schedule, or a punch card discount) on a magnetic background will ensure they keep it somewhere they can get to it easily.
Old (or New) Customer Discounts
This is one of my pet peeves that businesses do all the time. They send out coupons that are only good for people who have never tried their service before. The cable company is known for this. They often give deep discounts to bring people on. Then loyal customers get price increases.
You can offer new customer discounts through postcards or you can take a new approach and send out mailers only to your existing customers to thank them for their loyalty.
Another way to use this is to do something that Amazon does a lot (although not through a coupon). They offer trade-in discounts. If you have a product you can offer trade-ins. For businesses that offer services, not products, you can offer upgrades or upsells for existing customers. If you sell something that is a subscription service, offer an incentive for them to renew early.
Insta-worthy
Image is everything these days and images have become a very important part of getting noticed. People are less likely to read and more likely to give their attention to evocative imagery. If you have a business or service that lends itself to photographs, use that in a postcard. For instance, if you operate a hair salon and the trend is brightly-colored tips and you specialize in that, create a postcard of one of your masterpieces with a message that encourages people to embrace this fun trend. There may be people who have just been waiting for an invitation and who weren’t sure how to do it or where to go.
Birthday or Customer Anniversary Celebrations
Birthday discounts are huge in the cyber world. My problem with them? They give you about a week to use them. Don’t they know most of us have plans around our birthdays and their services don’t always fit into those plans? You can offer a birthday discount coupon (but please extend the expiration date) or try a different approach.
If you have data that allows you to do this, try a variation of the birthday card discount and give past customers discounts based on their anniversary date of shopping with you or how long they’ve been a loyal customer.
You can also take your cue from loyalty programs that reward customers for certain monetary spends within a year. Chick-fil-a and Uber do this. If you’re in the higher tier, you save more and get better rewards.
A note about expiration dates: I said earlier that I hate birthday deals because they’re never long enough. Look, I get it. You want to drive urgency and you absolutely should. If someone thinks they have two months to do something, they’ll likely put the postcard away and forget about it. If they see a quickly looming deadline and they find value in the offer, they’ll likely jump on it. However, birthday deadlines deserve a little more time. People often have plans. A week or two is not enough.
Consider accepting expired coupons as a gesture of good will. Make this clear to employees if that’s what you intend to do. You don’t want them giving a customer a hard time because they didn’t know you extended the expiration date. You needn’t advertise that you’ll honor them past the expiration point. Just do it when someone presents you with an expired coupon.
Announcement Cards
Is there something amazing going on at your business? Are you opening a new location, offering a new service, carrying a new line, or welcoming a new rock star employee? If you have exciting news, an announcement postcard is a perfect way to get attention. After all, direct mail has one of the highest conversion rates in all marketing channels at 5.1% compared with email, which is about .6% for the average business.
Reactivation Campaigns
If you have addresses for a lot of customers who have not purchased anything in a while, send them a “we miss you card” and find a way to kickstart their purchases. You can invite them back with a discount or lure them back with humor or a fun in-store giveaway.
Pro Note: in order to bring them back in, you’ll want to develop a compelling offer. What is it that will make them return? What problem can you solve for them? What discount will make it worth their while to give your business a try again? Answering these questions can make your reactivation campaign very successful and give you the opportunity to turn these “rarely seens” into loyal customers.
Do you want to start using direct mail for your customers? Or do you want to make your direct mail campaigns more successful? Contact the pros at ThinkQuik to discover the pieces and strategies that will work best for you and your business.
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