Does mail drive online behaviour?

02 Jul 2020

Communicating with your customers digitally has never been more important – nor more difficult. As the use of online technology has increased so has the challenge of standing out. How many of us choose which emails to open based on our needs that day – while the rest remain unopened? And as more people use PPC and SEO it gets harder to achieve the good results for the same budget.

Which means your customers might be missing your offers and promotions.

Your product, service, offer or promotion could be just what customers need right now. Using mail to stand out, and drive customers online, helps all of your marketing efforts, not just the digital strategy.

Interestingly this article in Decision Marketing extols the virtues of mail in these difficult times ‘How direct mail can help to beat the coronavirus blues’

Let’s look at the stats.

Chart 1 – Commercial actions for all direct mail items.

According to JICMAIL, 7% of panellists record that they visit the sender’s website when they receive a direct mail item (Chart 1). This rises to 9% for retailers (Chart 2) and 11% for mail order companies (Chart 3).

JICMAIL also separately records other digital behaviour including going online, looking up account details and using a tablet or smartphone (Chart 1). It’s clear that mail drives people online.

Chart 2 - Commercial actions for direct mail from retailers

Chart 3 - Commercial actions for direct mail from mail order / online retailer

But without sophisticated tracking techniques it can be hard to appreciate the additional web traffic mail can give you. When someone goes online because of mail, it could easily be attributed to SEO or PPC strategies. Don’t miss out on the web traffic mail provides.

In recent years the cost of Pay Per Click (PPC) using Google has more than doubled for some industries¹. Wordstream has reported that the average Cost Per Click (CPC) using PPC is $2.69 (£2.27)². And that’s for one click through to a URL which may or may not be from a potential enquiry. For the cost of 10 clicks @ £22.70, you could be sending 45 mail packs to targeted customers³.

It is worth testing some budget on a mail campaign to see if this could work for you.

Case studies showing print increasing online sales by 69%

Below are two case studies from Whistl showing door drops increasing online sales by 69%. Mail is more targeted so you can expect even better results.

La Casita increases sales by 35% year on year

Campaign objective - La Casita is a multisite tapas restaurant based in Yorkshire. They wanted to create one-to-one end customer relationships whilst building brand awareness, increasing sales and driving loyalty.

Solution - Working with Pernod Ricard brands, Beefeater and Plymouth Gin were promoted in conjunction with the restaurant chain. Door drops were targeted in areas around each restaurant, overlapping brand segmentation and postcode data. These prompted an app download to access the promotion and push notifications were used as a reminder along with POS reminders in each location.

Campaign results - The use of these media types together meant La Casita could analyse the integrations with the App and the Doordrops to gain a clear view of the campaign’s achievements.

“The campaign was a great success helping to boost bookings and drive a 35% YoY sales uplift”

Stephanie Welch, La Casita

Music Magpie online sales increase by 69% versus non-dropped sectors.

Campaign objective - Online retailer, Music Magpie, wanted to test how Doordrop Media could influence their online sales as part of an integrated campaign. A classic Doordrop was distributed around the North West area, advertising a 25% off sale promotion

Solution - Campaign reach was determined on insights from a combination of customer data and geo-demographics to produce a Mosaic profile. This strategy reached existing customers and identified new customers who would engage with the brand.

Campaign results - Digital activity deployed across the campaign. In postcode sectors with Doordrop activity, online sales increased by 69% versus non-dropped sectors. Music Magpie will continue to use Doordrop as an effective part of their media mix

So how can you use mail to drive your digital marketing?

There are a number of ways you can use mail to help improve your digital marketing. Regularity and relevancy are key. One off mailings to everyone won’t be as effective as regular mailings to target customers. Below are 7 ways to consider using mail to drive customers to your website:

Use targeted data and personalisation to improve response

In our recent blog we showed how regionalisation improves response rates. At Lettershop, this is simple and cost-effective to achieve. Using personalisation helps your customers to feel valued. In these days of personalised web experiences, it is almost expected, so make the most of your mail by targeting the content to your customers. Clean data ensures you are not wasting money – use our data hygiene service to make every mail piece count.

Consider new segments for testing mail

Younger audiences respond just as well to mail but don’t receive as much. See our next blog on this coming soon. Lettershop can help identify new audiences to grow your sales.

Use Partially Addressed Mail if cold data isn’t available

Partially Addressed Mail is targeted using customer postcodes, so is particularly powerful when combining geo and demographic profiles. It doesn’t use personal information – so is GDPR compliant – meaning you can send targeted, relevant communications to new customers.

Use exciting mail ideas to capture audience attention

Using a physical piece of mail gives you enormous options when it comes to paper, format and finishes. We have many ideas on Creative Corner which showcases multiple ways to surprise and delight your customers.

Use a compelling offer

Incorporate your offer into a compelling format to bring it to life using a pop up or creative die cut. Digital personalisation allows you to vary your offers to individual clients or segments maximising the incentive to respond.

Try a simple regular idea like the Easymailer

Another approach is to consider using a quick, easy format showing your products and services. This comes in a simple 4pp right up to an extensive 12pp which will allow you to include multiple products. Link to easymailer?

Use Paper Wrap for greater engagement

Where you are looking to send brochures, letters and flyers, consider using Paper Wrap. The Paper Wrap is full colour personalised through the digital printing process which gives you a huge advantage and improved return on investment through more effective targeting.

Content is key too. Make it easy to see how to get to the relevant webpage. Mail stays in the home for over a week⁴ effectively acting as a reminder to take action so take advantage of mail’s longevity.

Three steps to using mail to drive web traffic

Incorporating a new mailing into your digital marketing strategies is simple. With our help we can ensure your mailing is cost-effective, engaging, on-brand and drives a great response. Use these three steps:

Set your objectives. Who do you want to reach and what actions do you want them to take? We can help you make sure you are using the right data set, be that your own customer data or using Pebl, our bespoke data service which will help you acquire new customers.

Consider your format. We have bags of design experience to help you make the right choice for design. You may want to include offers or coupons. There may be a need to include a postal reply. You will want your mailing to work hard and drive your customers online. Let us create a mock-up with your artwork so you can see how effective this will be.