Direct Mail & Digital Marketing

Is there still room for direct mail in the digital age?

As part of a recent internal acquisition campaign for American Express, we created communication formats across multiple channels, including email, digital social, and physical direct mail. During the post campaign review, we discovered that the physical DM achieved the most take-up and was the most successful channel.

Our direct mail piece worked in tandem with an email campaign

We’ve long held the belief that if budgets allow, and your prospect data is rock solid, then well-targeted, engaging, physical DM is still a powerful channel – either alone, or more commonly as part of your campaign marketing mix.

As our inboxes get evermore clogged with ‘junk’ and ‘spam’, often-unsolicited mail (although this will hopefully change after the GDPR deadline), our doormats are now relatively clear of clutter and physical mail. So, when a well-targeted ‘creative’ piece of DM arrives through our letterboxes, it more often than not holds our attention and encourages some form of engagement. It also has a tendency to hang around the house, acting as a piece of subliminal brand awareness.

From a sensory and engagement perspective it can’t be beaten. With the shown example we engineered a number of physical and sensory techniques – from tear strips as part of the creative to pop-up gingerbread men, and even a ‘seasonal’ ginger fragrance that was released once the DM was opened.

Results have endorsed the use of this channel and we recommend it should always be at least considered as part of any direct marketing mix. To find out how you could incorporate a successful direct mail campaign into your marketing strategy, give us a call on 01273 478822.