The conventional wisdom has it that print advertising is dead. But direct mail is still hanging on and is still highly effective. B2B direct mail marketing has a 4.4% response rate, in contrast with email marketing for manufacturing, which averages a 2.18% click-through rate. So, how can your manufacturing business take advantage, and what benefits might you see? Cain & Company is here to help with direct mail marketing services that work!
Besides a higher open rate and higher conversion rates, what other benefits does direct mail marketing offer?
In contrast to our email inboxes, which we may ignore especially as the incoming emails pile up, we can’t avoid physical mail. We check daily, and we have to physically handle each piece. That makes your direct mail pieces a tangible and literal touchpoint in your marketing, which in turn makes your message easier to process and more impactful.
Not all B2B marketing services have the same level of customer trust. We’re all a bit hesitant to click on links we see on websites, emails, and social media. We’ve all second-guessed the sender of a marketing email. That’s something that tends to happen far less often with physical mail, which is perceived as more trustworthy than its online equivalents. Direct mail reinforces credibility and even helps to build brand loyalty.
We’ve come to take the targeting tools in digital marketing for granted. However, direct mail can be targeted every bit as precisely, whether you’re geotargeting or leveraging the tools in a CRM. In fact, unlike digital, direct mail lets you target and track right down to the individual recipient, rather than getting imprecise aggregate data that can raise more questions than it answers.
Although we’ve talked about the benefits of direct mail versus email and digital, we would also add something of a cautionary note: these things aren’t competing, nor are they somehow in opposition to one another. Direct mail can be a great follow-up on, or complement to, email marketing, a phone conversation, or even a click-through from social media ads (consider direct mail in place of a downloaded PDF or white paper, for instance). An experienced marketer may not use all the tools in their kit at once, but we always make sure that we keep them in easy reach!
We won’t deny that email marketing has its place. But it also has its drawbacks, not least of which is that it doesn’t encourage detail. Too many images, too much text, and too much information—with “too much” often being an arbitrary figure chosen by an algorithm—can result in your email being routed to the junk folder. A mail piece, on the other hand, can include as much detail as you’d like and will still reach the recipient, who can then get the picture (and the words), just as you intended.
Now let’s take a step back and look at the totality of what we’ve discussed up to this point. You’ve made a personal connection with a mail piece that’s individually targeted and personalized. You’ve built trust with the care and quality of your mailing. You’ve even gone the extra mile on the small stuff, from product details to the weight and texture of the paper stock you’ve used. All of that adds up to something that leaves a favorable impression of your brand and helps keep you top of mind when it’s time to make a buying decision.
The answer here, as with most anything else, is yes, but with creativity and experience, those disadvantages are easily overcome.
There’s one more direct mail marketing benefit that we haven’t discussed up to this point and which applies equally to nearly all your marketing efforts. As we’ve just seen, getting marketing right requires businesses and marketers alike to dig for a deeper understanding of your customers’ needs, goals, and wishes; it also invites businesses to see themselves in a new light, reconsidering what their brand means to themselves and those they serve alike.
That effort can pay off in a new focus and a renewed sense of purpose and just might boost your bottom line. By understanding your tactical and strategic marketing needs, Cain & Company can address the questions and complexities surrounding your rate of return and your ROI relative to other types of marketing to guide you to results that matter. Get in touch today!
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Robin ChandlerMarketing Coordinator & Copywriter |
