A mailshot is most commonly used by businesses to contact large groups of customers and prospects through the post. This includes anything ranging from a flyer, large-scale hard-copy mailings, mass newsletters or postcards.
A successful mailshot catches the reader’s attention, maintains their interest and encourages them to take action. Here we explain 7 reasons why you should make a mailshot part of your next marketing campaign.
1. Mailshot Campaigns Have High Response Rates
Direct mail traditionally has a higher response rates than email and other forms of digital marketing. According to a study by Bangor University into the effects of paper versus digital media, physical media feels more real to the brain and leads to a greater response.
A great way of boosting a mailshot’s response rate is to encourage immediate responses or buying decisions with a clear Call to Action. Offering a clear incentive like a free gift or a discount code only available through the mailshot is a beneficial way of boosting your response rate and in turn total ROI.
2. Raise Brand Awareness
Mailshots are effective for awareness due to their tangible nature. Since they are directly delivered to your customers’ and prospects’ hands, they are far more likely to see and read your message. It’s important to remember that you only have seconds to make an impact, so get to the point immediately and avoid any waffle. Bangor University also found tangible materials leave a deeper footprint in the brain. If you want to build your brand awareness and resonate with your target market, it seems like direct mail is the way to go.
3. A Mailshot Can Complement Other Marketing Channels
Using mailshots as part of an integrated marketing approach has a proven track record and has been used widely for a long period of time with extensive data to demonstrate its effectiveness. Mailshots are best used as part of a wider integrated marketing approach. Investing in a mailshot campaign helps to attract a greater ROI and reinforces other marketing channels. For example, an email marketing campaign backed with a mailshot in the form of a flyer or brochure has even more impact as they work together to deliver the message.
4. Cost Effective Versus Online Advertising
One of the most noticeable benefits of a mailshot campaign is that it is cost effective, particularly when compared to digital advertising. Not only is the creation easy and affordable but the sending and delivery of the campaign is also very economical, particularly if you opt in for a mass send out. For example, there is very little cost associated with sending out leaflets as opposed to choosing to do an online marketing campaign with large costs associated with online ads. Leaflets cost little to produce and can easily be designed online for free and cost very little to send in bulk.
5. You Can Tailor Your Offer to Your Target Market
Providing you have a good and clear understanding of your customers, you can generate specific offers that can be targeted to identified customer groups or prospects. You can gain knowledge of your customers buying behaviours and purchase history by using CRM systems, Ecommerce and analytical systems. You can then generate bespoke mailing lists of those you would like to target depending on your campaign strategy.
6. Modern Personalisation Methods Enable High ROI
The flexibility of being able to personalise and create a bespoke mailshot campaign to a carefully targeted audience will help your business to get noticed and stand out from the crowd. They allow you to outreach different groups of customers but with a personal advantage, showing that you understand and care about your recipients. Despite the obvious examples of personalisation including name and address details, mailshots allow you to demonstrate your knowledge on your customers previously purchased products, or perhaps using more advanced techniques like prompting of products the customers have viewed online but have not yet purchased.
7. The Success of Your Campaign Can Be Easily Tracked
Provided all the right steps are put in place and set up correctly, a mailshot campaign can be very easy to track. Using unique coding for your mailshot with unique numbers, URLs, or anything identifiable will allow you to track monitor your results. In turn, the easier it is to track your results, the easier it is to make more informed decisions for future campaigns as you will have a better understanding of what works best for your business.
Conclusion
Mailshots can be a very effective part of your marketing strategy, and as ever, it’s often best to run a mailshot campaign alongside social media, email and other forms of marketing.
To create a successful mailshot campaign, it’s important to understand your target audience so you can make your direct mail as relevant as possible. Remember to personalise your mailer and keep the response rates high with a powerful message that will get your customers to take action. Don’t be tempted to cut any corners by producing a generic one size fits all mailshot, as using defined targeting and personalisation can bring you a great ROI.
Contact us today for a free no obligation quotation. For more information please use our contact form or call us on 020 8492 5858 and one of our mailing specialists will be in touch soon.