Get Your Customers in the Shopping Mood With Personalised Direct Mail!

The difference between online retail and its brick-and-mortar counterpart is expanding continuously. Consumers have shifting expectations of the shopping experience in an interconnected world. For example, 40% of consumers are frustrated with long lines, and 24% complain about a slow checkout experience. 

Direct mail stands out as a tried-and-tested marketing channel for the retail industry. It creates an additional touchpoint, provides a tactile experience, and helps you geographically target your consumers. 

Personalization to Stand on Consumer Expectations 

72% of consumers say that they expect businesses to recognize them as individuals and their preferences. This personalization is all about building a positive customer experience that makes them feel special. 

Businesses need to focus on building thoughtful touchpoints throughout the customer journey. It could be anything from sending a post-purchase survey mailer, a how-to video, or running a multi-channel loyalty program with amazing incentives to shop. Importance of Personalized Action for Consumers, % of respondents. To get a better idea about the impact of personalized direct mail, we are dividing the topic into three segments: 

• Market
• Leadership 
• Consumer 

Market Perspective 

Stand Out From the Crowd 

Consumers are often intimidated by the constant influx of information from digital channels. On average, they see thousands of ads and messages every day. 

A personalized direct mail campaign stands out in a digital-heavy marketing world. Brands can cut the digital clutter by delivering a unique advertising experience and differentiating themselves. 

Digital ads can be easily ignored, archived, deleted, blocked, or scrolled past. However, consumers have to look at a mail piece once before tossing it away into the trash. Research shows that tailored direct mailers can have a shelf life of about 17 days. 

Geographic and Demographic Targeting

Personalized and targeted marketing mailers have a higher impact on consumers. Mailing lists and your customer data to segment your campaign based on: 

• Different demographics 
• Geographic locations 
• Purchase history 
• Online behavior 
• Preferences 

Consumer data from your CRM system is the gold mine of insights, making your campaigns highly targeted. Tailoring the message and collateral increases the chances of converting prospects into paying customers. 

FYI: A report by Invesp suggests the effective use of CRM data resulted in a 47% increase in sales revenue. 

Higher Response Rate and Marketing ROI 

Tailored direct mail can provide a staggering ROI of 161% on house lists. In comparison, email and social media advertising only bring 44% and 21% respectively. Personalized messages resonate more with recipients. It could further increase the response rate and conversions. 

A DMA report shows that direct mail campaigns have a 9% average response rate. Undoubtedly, it is a suitable communication channel for almost every industry. A tailored approach to direct mail marketing is best for generating leads, spreading brand awareness, and retaining customers. 

However, these numbers are insufficient for retailers as they need to define specific metrics to measure the campaign’s performance. What could those metrics be? 

• Conversion Rate 
• Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
• Average Revenue Per Order (ARPO)
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) 
• Cost Per Response 
• Redemption Rate 
• Engagement Rate 
• Delivery Rate 

Data-Driven Marketing 

Any personalized marketing campaign requires access to customer data. It helps marketers to fine-tune the campaign according to the consumers’ tastes, preferences, and pain points. Automated technology and Variable Data Printing (VDP) bring a massive boost to data-driven marketing efforts. 

Even a study by the DMA suggests that implementing three points of personalization or higher might increase the response rate by more than 1000%. Using customer data makes the message highly relevant to their needs, wants, and desires. 

Organizations only need to gather valuable insights from their CRM systems or marketing automation tools to achieve hyper-personalization of mailers. 

Interesting Fact: According to a Salesforce survey, 99% of marketers believe personalization helps to improve customer relationships. What can be personalized via data-driven marketing? 

• Customer name 
• Address 
• Account information 
• Purchase history 
• Product recommendations 
• Special offers 
• Visual elements 
• Body copy 
• Call-to-Action (CTA) 
• Store information 
• Local events 
• Loyalty points balance 

Leadership Perspective 

Higher Brand Loyalty With Customer Retention 

Personalization is a driving force for repeat engagement and loyalty for a brand. Recurring mailers generate more data for brands to create more relevant experiences. The 

McKinsey’s study (mentioned above) also suggests that 78% of consumers are more likely to make repeat purchases from companies that put effort into personalization. It encourages higher brand loyalty and customer retention. 

Businesses using personalized direct mail can build more meaningful relationships with their customers. Many brands exclusively use physical mail to run their loyalty programs for higher engagement and customer retention. Businesses should focus on retaining their customers to ensure ongoing revenue growth. 

FYI: Acquiring new customers could be 5 times more expensive than retaining existing ones. 

Long-Term Brand Awareness Strategy

Every successful business wants to focus on long-term brand awareness and reputation management through its marketing campaigns. The use of personalized direct mailers showcases a commitment towards a customer-first mindset. Many organizations even consult with the best reputation management companies to ensure their messaging, customer feedback, and public perception align with their long-term branding goals.

According to Lucidpress, it takes 5 to 7 interactions for people to remember a brand. A consistent approach to personalized direct mail is necessary to encourage brand affinity and loyalty. These constant efforts directly improve your customer lifetime value (CLV) as customers beyond single purchases. 

Check out this North Shore Animal League’s newsletter to learn how they constantly stay on top of minds. 

A newsletter is the perfect collateral for a long-term personalized direct mail campaign. It supports your long-term goals of customer experience with a more human and emotional connection. 

Smart Resource Allocation

Running a direct mail campaign for a general audience could be expensive. It focuses on a huge segment instead of micro-targeting the most relevant demographic. In contrast, targeting only the high-potential customer segments is more resource-efficient.  

For example, marketing school stationery to a general audience might not result in high sales. It would be better to focus on households with children for such campaigns. 

Interestingly, businesses that personalize their offerings to a specific customer segment generate 10 to 15% higher revenue than those that do not. 

Marketing professionals should consider studying data such as demographics, purchasing behaviour, and interests. Personalized direct mail campaigns focus on tailoring the message and offer for a specific target audience. It reduces the risk of wasting resources on unqualified or uninterested individuals. 

Instead of sending generic mailers to every customer, brands can incentivize specific groups with loyalty rewards or personalized product recommendations for better sales.

Measurable Impact With QR Codes and PURLs 

Personalized direct mailpieces use QR codes and PURLs (personalized URLs) to track interactions and engagement for each campaign. These custom interactive elements from mailpieces direct consumers to specific online channels, such as: 

• Custom landing pages 
• Explanation videos 
• Social media pages 
• Email addresses 
• Mobile applications 

It is a modern tracking method that helps to understand how recipients engage with their mailers. You get the idea of how long they stayed on a webpage and what actions they took. Consumers could sign up for a newsletter, make a purchase, visit your social media pages, or simply browse through your website. 

Consumer Perspective  

Relevant Marketing Messages and Offers

Sending personalized mailers tailored to the recipient’s preferences and needs makes the message more relevant and valuable. Top businesses lean into data and analytics to identify opportunities and understand their target audience. They cleverly study 

• Customer segments 
• Microsegments 
• Behavioral factors 
• Transactional activities
• Engagement trends 

These insights are vital in defining and quantifying the personalization objectives. Consumers feel more comfortable and interested when they see personalized mailers in their inboxes. It encourages them to take action on your marketing mailers and buy more from your business. 

According to a report by Deloitte, consumers choose retailers that make it right in the first place! Making marketing materials personalized is the first step to leaving a memorable experience without intimidating consumers with too much information. It automatically impacts engagement, response rates, and ROI. 

Trust Building With Emotional Connection 

Various studies suggest that personalized direct mail delivery trust. It plays an emotional role in how consumers decide to engage with a brand and make a purchase. Neuromarketing research by USPS and Temple University suggests that physical advertisements have a significant impact on consumer decision-making. 

These personalized mailers leave a lasting impression than their digital counterparts, regardless of the age group. The USPS research considered neuroscience and psychology to understand the effect of personalized direct mailers on consumer behaviour and advertising phenomena. 

The participants in the research displayed a higher subconscious valuation and desire for products advertised in a physical format. It means personalized mailers are more effective with two stages of the customer journey:

• Exposure to information 
• Retrieval for information 

Incentives and Rewards for Constant Motivation 

A personalized direct mail campaign could be a highly targeted approach to reward and incentivize customers. Many brands are running customer loyalty programs to retain customers with exclusive discounts, loyalty points, or promotions. A survey by Antavo found that 81.4% of loyalty program owners believe that their program was helpful during the economic downturn. 

For example, a customer who frequently buys electronics might receive a discount for a new product category related to their past purchases. It would motivate them to engage with the brand and make more purchases. 

1. QR Codes and PURLs: Marketers can include these interactive elements to drive their prospects and customers to custom landing pages with exclusive content or promotions. Such extensive efforts into personalization make customers feel valued and appreciated. 
2. Telephone Numbers: Include your customer support number in the mailer to establish a one-to-one connection. 
3. Discount Codes: Adding custom codes in the mailers also motivates people to redeem them to enjoy the benefits. 

Higher Attention Span  

The attention spans are continuously reducing with the rise of short-form videos and instant information availability. However, according to WARC, consumers, on average, spend 108 seconds with personalized direct mailers. 

Consumers appreciate and pay more attention when brands personalize their marketing message and design. Moreover, a USPS generational report suggests that every age group prefers receiving direct mailers over digital communication. 

The older generation is more familiar with physical mailers, while young consumers treat them as novelty items. Brands can definitely ensure a higher attention span when using personalized direct mailers to engage their audience.