There are those who claim that businesses should dump Direct Mail and focus on digital marketing. However, combining these two different marketing tools can create better outcomes.
In a case study involving a regional financial institution in the southeast United States, IP-Targeting was combined with Direct Mail.
What they discovered was that time on their website increased by 40% from visitors who’d been subject to IP-targeting. Further, the targeting campaign garnered a response rate of 1.09 percent. For this bank, an overall budgetary increase of 5.83% resulted in a 79% boost in the overall effectiveness of their campaign.
In a second case study, a home improvement brand selected 17 different markets in the United States. Over an 18-month period, they launched 27 separate campaigns.
One group, of 1.15 million targets, received IP-targeted ads through digital technology. The control group of approximately 1.74 million people received only physical mail. More than 11 million impressions were served.
This group was 33% more likely to make a purchase from the brand, and these campaigns grossed $1,930,000 in incremental sales.
The Return on Ad Spend came out to be a whopping 1065%, meaning that there was a $10 return for every $1 spent.
Citing the 2016 Data & Marketing Association (DMA) Statistical Fact Book, CIO from IDG noted that print advertising still plays a valuable role in marketing, writing that, among other things,” 2.5 billion coupons were redeemed by consumers in 2015”:
“… the second most popular paid advertising vehicle for B2B companies is some form of print or offline promotion. While that doesn’t necessarily mean print marketing is thriving, it does show that print marketing has a role to play in complementing and maximizing digital marketing efforts moving forward.”
The updated DMA Statistical Fact Book for 2017 had, even more, insights to share, writing that customer response rates have been increasing at a rate of 43% each year and the reason why is due to “an increase in mailings paired with digital intelligence.”
In the midst of this growth in response rates something unusual happened. The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) reported a 2% decline in overall mailings. However, regarding direct mail, this is to be expected due to “better targeting.” That better targeting translates to a smaller hit to the advertising budget with the potential for even better results.
According to the Direct Mail Marketing Essential Guide 2014, marketing budgets were benefitted in 2013 by the USPS when a 2% discount was offered during the holiday season on “mailers with mobile barcodes or augmented reality (AR) capabilities.”
And that’s not all. The guide noted that Direct Mail is capable, but there is another great reason to combine it with a digital approach.
Quoting Epsilon’s senior director of digital strategy in Blurred Lines (page 6), the Guide wrote that when Direct Mail is combined with digital marketing, a bolster occurs for the digital outcome, creating “a 10 to 30 percent uplift in conversion…”
But there is more. Better targeting, due to combining Direct Mail and IP-targeting also helps businesses more effectively use their advertising budget because money is only spent on those customers they are seeking.
Better potential outcomes and a better use of marketing dollars. Combining IP-targeting with Direct Mail is worth consideration.
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