Digital Marketing And Direct Mail: What You Need To Know To Get Started

Your digital marketing strategy incorporates a wide range of different models and technology to get the best results. What you may not be aware of, is that direct mail can play a major part in your digital marketing campaign.

Lets start about Digital Marketing And Direct Mail – Definition:

Defining About Digital Marketing

Digital marketing can be defined as anything that would be used traditionally for marketing that uses something electronic. For example, think about a smartphone or computer that browses the web and social media.

It can take many forms, from using social media sponsored posts, to targeted ads that would appear at the top of a search engine result. In theory digital marketing follows the same principles of traditional marketing, in that it conveys promotional messaging and material, with analytic data available to measure results.

Defining About Direct Mail

Direct mail on the other hand refers to mail which you send to a consumer’s home for advertising via direct mail providers. So, the same principle is applied here, but in a physical form. It could come in different forms, such as brochures or letters, as well as some discount code leaflets.

Businesses have been using some form of direct mail for several years. For a while, it seemed that businesses had ditched them for preference of email dumping. But it seems that has proved to be ineffective due to the amount that gets sent to an individual’s inbox, meaning they hardly ever click on a link.

As direct mail will go straight into the mailbox physically, it means someone will see it and bring it into their home. Even if it’s to the bin, it means that someone has seen it, and it’s in their head. Direct mail and digital marketing work together as they help strengthen the overarching omnichannel marketing strategy. The more touchpoints that a customer will be exposed to, the more likely they are to purchase a product or service.

Where It Can Fit Within Your Strategy?

You will need to consider how you will incorporate direct mail into your overall digital marketing strategy. Or better yet, how that will affect your entire marketing strategy in general. Direct mail can help to amplify your digital marketing strategy at multiple levels of the customer journey. This customer journey refers to the point at which a customer decides to purchase a product, to when they own it. This can also be known as a touchpoint within marketing.

Direct mail services can help you with lead generation. No matter what industry you are in, or what your business is, you will be able to benefit in some way. If you are a business that operates both in-person and online, purely focusing on digital methods may not cut it. That’s because social media will only get you so far, and after you’re established, you will have reached anyone already interested. You can’t risk emailing those who haven’t opted into your services due to certain data laws.

Direct mail works differently within these laws. You can purchase address lists from lead-generating sites that can be broken down into locations for you to direct your marketing efforts. This is a way of using online and digital methods to find physical means to get direct advertising completed. You will be able to focus your efforts on small towns to cities, depending on what you’re looking for.

A direct mail marketing strategy will help you reach more people that will have access to your business, at a decent cost for your return of investment. Your digital marketing strategy should have a focus on direct mail for this reason, as you can use digital means to create templates and mass produce.

Some customers will even feel more valued through direct mail rather than simply doing an email. You can of course incorporate both, by sending out coupons for online classes and gifts. You could send these to people who regularly buy from you, or from first-time buyers to help gain their support.

How To Integrate Direct Mail With Digital Marketing?

You should think more closely about how you will integrate direct mail with your overall digital marketing campaign. The strategy you employ will have to have more to it than simply sending direct mail randomly, you will have to plan to get results.

The issue can arise if you separate these two entities. In truth, your direct mail campaign and your overall digital marketing should be considered the same. This way, you will be able to treat them the same to work together and create the best end product of a campaign.

One way in which you can do this is by gathering all of your marketing teams for socials, digital or direct mail if they are separate and have a meeting. All of these experts who lead their area will be able to plan together with a cohesive strategy rather than each doing one alone.

You could also use digital means to help automate certain direct mail processes. For example, one innovative tactic is to set up a system so that when someone shows an interest in your business, they can sign up to hear more. This could lead to them inputting information about their address, through address verification and then automatically have a letter printed and sent, before being tracked.

Any current system that you operate could be used for your direct mail marketing. Ideally, you will use one software of process to manage your digital marketing efforts. The only time it’s okay to have multiple ones is if they work together well and benefit each other. Otherwise, it can be a time-consuming task to go through all of this manually, especially if they conflict with each other.

What The Future Holds For Digital Marketing?

We have already started to see some major changes come to digital marketing in recent years that seemed far off not long ago. As smart devices are within most people’s homes, you can use your voice to order a product and have something delivered to your home. These smart devices could also be used for searching for products.

Social media has also started looking into ways they can monetize accounts and make posts shoppable. For example, Instagram now has a feature where business accounts can post a picture of a product with the tags taking users to the store of the product, with the price listed on the tag in some cases. This will only be the start of social media rising within the digital marketing scope.

Video marketing will also be a major feature that will only grow and expand within the digital marketing space. Video content can help to persuade consumers to choose your brand for visualization which is almost like proof of a service or product is effective.

Artificial intelligence and smart technology, in general, will be a big market. Already, we have seen AI chat boxes and AI phone lines help customers deal with issues. They still have a human-like feel to them with names, whilst answering questions when keywords are identified. If they are unable to assist, then they will point them in the right direction of the person who can.

Essentially, we will see more interactive content within the digital marketing industry. Content such as artificial realities, virtual realities, and content with which people engage more will be useful in the next few years as consumer demands change.

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