How to Decide if Personalized Direct Mail is Better Than Internet Marketing
Today, marketing and sales professionals have more marketing options when it comes to attracting new clients to their products and services. Most professionals choose between personalized direct mail and internet marketing. But which one attracts the most customers?
Let’s look at some of the benefits of using personalized direct mail and internet marketing to determine which option is best for your brand.
What is Personalized Direct Mail and Internet Marketing and Why it Works?
Personalized direct mail is a form of direct mail that target’s products and services to individuals using personalized content and greetings. They can take the form of personalized handwritten letters; envelopes or brochures to name a selected few.
The pros of using personalized direct mail are:
- It’s measurable – Personalized direct mail provides an accurate measurement of feedback about how effective your campaign is by way of response rates. For example, a brand could ask customers to present or mail-in a piece of personalized direct mail for a specified discount or gift. That brand can measure the effectiveness of their direct mail piece by totaling up how many discounts were given.
- Your messages can be targeted – While the goal of other general forms of marketing is to reach a large volume of individuals, personalized direct mail contains highly targeted content that is more likely to grab the attention of clients which results in high response rates.
- Tangibility – as pointed out by an article on USPS.com, personalized direct mail is tangible which means it can be referred to as many times as the recipient wants once the direct mail is received.
Internet marketing (also known as online marketing) uses the web and email to drive sales of products or services. This is typically used for electronic commerce and is often used in conjunction with traditional marketing such as personalized direct mail.
Here are some pros of using internet marketing
- It is convenient – with the explosion of social media, communicating with individuals at any time anywhere is made simple.
- Builds relationships – when a product or service is used, you can easily follow up with your customer or give them an opportunity to leave a review that future customers can read.
- Effective data collection – when an email, social or ad link is clicked offering a product or service, data can easily be collected regarding the type of customers that are interested in what you are offering as well as what products or services are the most popular.
Which Option Attracts More Customers – Personalized Direct Mail or Internet Marketing?
While internet marketing opens the doors to new ways to communicate with customers both new and existing, the statistics suggest that consumers prefer and feel more comfortable with personalized direct mail.
In a survey done by DMA (Direct Marketing Association), direct mail was chosen as the preferred method of communication for receiving marketing from local shops (51%) and banks (48%) while email is preferred for events and competitions (50%). In regards to which form of marketing builds trust, 56% of consumers consider print marketing a more trustworthy type of marketing.
Personalized direct mail has a more powerful presence and effect on consumers as compared to personalized email. The reason for this is consumers can tell that more effort went into creating personalized direct mail. This is why 70% of consumers say they prefer personalized mail over email because they feel it is more personal.
Like personalized direct mail, internet marketing is a cost-effective option for most campaigns. It is, however, most beneficial when used in conjunction with personalized direct mail. The rarity and traditional features of personalized direct mail are why it is preferred and still very relevant for campaigns looking for guaranteed results.
Letter Friend can help with enhancing your direct mail campaign by creating personalized handwritten materials that will attract new customers and turn them into loyal clients.
To find out more on how we can assist you with your campaign goals, fill out our Custom Quote, and we will get in touch and work directly with you today!
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