Black Friday is quickly approaching, which means consumers are highly receptive to receiving advertisements, which makes it the perfect time to run multiple direct mail campaigns.
Why Focus on Direct Mail?
Direct mail marketing has a way of engaging people on a deeper level than digital messaging. Neuromarketing firm TrueImpact conducted a study that looked at how consumers interact with both digital and print advertising.
Researchers conducted eye-tracking tests, high-resolution EEG brain wave measurement, and also measured participants’ cognitive load, motivation and attention.
The results?
Subjects that viewed a direct mail piece had a 70% higher recall rate than those who were shown a digital ad. Researchers also learned that it takes roughly 21% less effort to process a direct mail piece than digital media. In other words, it’s quite a bit easier for people to understand and remember your direct mail advertisement.
We can also surmise from these results that is costs more to run a less effective digital campaign, because it takes more impressions for consumers to even remember what they saw and who was behind the ad. This means direct mail offers a greater return than digital advertising.
Print ads like direct mail can also be highly-targeted using segmented data to reach the right audience. Thanks to tailored mailings, direct mail pieces can feel more personal and have more of an impact.
So now that you know direct mail offers more benefits at a lower cost, lets look at some key ideas that will help you plan some direct mail campaigns for the holiday season.
Put your advertising budget to work by getting in front of consumers at home.
Get Started Early
You don’t want to be trying out a campaign a week before Black Friday. You’ll want to start right now to test different versions of copy and images. By giving yourself as much lead time as possible, you can optimize your creatives and feel confident your ads will perform over the busiest shopping weekend of the year.
Make Sure You Stand Out
These aren’t ordinary ads, these are Black Friday ads, and yours will be vying for attention just like every other local business and national brand. While you may have a leg up on the digital noise, you will be competing for attention from other mailers, including newspaper inserts and holiday catalogues.
There are two rules to getting attention with your holiday mailers:
1) Be festive. Use holiday themes, designs and graphics to put people in the right mood and play around with paper size and style.
2) Make your messaging enticing. Think of ways you can make your direct mail piece more personal and be sure to offer a unique deal, free gift or some type of bonus upgrade to your recipients.
When You Give – You Receive
Many shoppers feel guilty for the amount of money they spend over the holidays. You can help them, those in need, and your own bottom line by donating a portion of each sale to a local charity or animal shelter. Make this fact very visible on your direct mailers.
While direct mail is considered old school by many marketers, it makes a much more lasting impression on consumers. And, today’s direct mail campaigns can be even more effective because they can be fueled by data, just like programmatic advertising.
If you’ve been wondering how you can make the biggest impact this Black Friday, direct mail is the way to go. Need a little help getting your mailer off the ground? Get in touch with us.
