Direct Mail Is Back: Fresh, New and Highly Targeted

Old fashioned, unopened, outdated: Who remembers direct mail (DM)? Massive amounts of letters and other nonsense that we mailed, hoping to get a response. By the late 1990s, one agency was sending more than a million pieces of DM/month. But all of that began to change as electronic delivery took over. There were some downsides: DM was always a numbers game. You had to distribute a lot to expect any results, so we spent a significant amount of money on lead generation. There was also collateral damage, as any printer will attest. But now direct mail is back: It’s fresh, new and highly targeted.

Direct mail on the comeback trail

Direct mail is back, but it’s a new version of those boring old letters. It’s the new way to reach high-value prospects with personalized messages. In 2018, a DM project beat the competition to win top prize at the B2B Marketing Awards. In all of our digital madness, it seems that people now want something tangible. 

There is a variety of reasons why marketers are returning to DM

Fatigue with digital marketing and lack of customer engagement mean that there’s a unique opportunity for direct mail. It’s starting to look new and fresh. With inboxes stuffed, a piece of direct mail is now starting to look like a novelty. In our digital world, there’s a greater appreciation for a tactile, authentic, even artisanal experience. Agencies creating highly personalized campaigns always include a DM component. 

It’s not the junk mail you remember

Today’s DM bears no relation to the endless junkmail that continues to land in our mailboxes. The concept behind the new DM has changed from that of a piece of mail to an opportunity to creatively engage with a customer. With the new DM, we’re looking for opportunities to be highly targeted and send something of value. The real value of the new DM: Opening the door for a dialog. 

With the new approach, DM is rarely, if ever, used as a standalone campaign. It is just one part of the nurture journey.  Its value is that it’s integrated into an overarching campaign, so there’s followup.

There are some caveats

For those who are used to email marketing, DM doesn’t provide the easy data on opens and clickthroughsthat we equate with success. But maybe we need to reevaluate that information as a measure of success. 

The economics of direct mail: Think of this as an investment

Cleanse your data before you send this out. That means calling offices to make sure the prospects are still there. Never send high-value DM to a cold list—reserve this for those whom you have previously engaged and want to make an impression. You’re talking to high-value prospects who might become valued clients. This is worth the investment.

Once the DM has been delivered, follow-up is critical

Follow-up calls and emails are mandatory. The direct mail piece provides the talking points. Prospects will feel compelled to take a call if what you’ve sent them has value!

Ready to include DM in your marketing campaign? 

Contact Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and content marketing experts.

Data Drives Rebranding Effort for Ecommerce Site

Marketing is not an exact science. Despite our experience and great instincts, some things just don’t work. We need to be prepared to make adjustments and try something new. Fortunately, for one ecommerce client, we have data to help us make informed business decisions.

We optimized his website a year ago. We did keyword research, then updated every product description, caption and alt tag field using these keywords. 

Google Analytics reports and competitor research helped us decide to rebrand

The data from Google Analytics (GA), the web analytics service that tracks and reports website traffic, has helped us make an important business decision to rebrand. We’re moving away from our current sustainable, organic ethos and stepping up  to a more dramatic, sophisticated approach to the way we present our entire product line. 

Project plan includes updating website and entire photo inventory

Our project plan includes photo editing our entire inventory and updating our website with a new color palette. We’ll need to revise our social sites and our MailChimp template to showcase our new focus. 

We plan to be more aggressively using our social channels, tracking our efforts and learning from them. We will be creating personas--our ideal clients—what they look like and how they spend money. Our project plan includes Facebook advertising (PPC), which we’ll manage closely. We may ultimately reach a completely new audience, including commercial rather than just our current residential clients. 

Google Analytics rolled out in 2005, and it keeps getting better 

The information that GA delivers in real time is critical for companies that want to measure the effects of their marketing campaigns. Our report tells us our visitors are coming mostly from Google, how long they’re staying on each page and what paths they’re taking through the site.

The good news and the bad

•       Our bounce rate is fairly good—under 50%, which means that our users are staying on the site for up to two minutes before “bouncing” off.
•       Users are drilling down through several layers of pages on the site.
•       Despite the growing use of mobile, the majority of our visitors are coming from desktop computers.
•       Even with increased traffic, most of our users are new—not return visitors. Not good--we all want to be building a community around our products and services. 

Courting returning online shoppers to create community 

Shoppers know that we rarely buy on the first pass. We visit, then look around to see what the competitors are offering. We may/not return to purchase that original item. But if we like that site, we bookmark it and return. We want to court that shopper. 

Google Analytics: A free tool to help track your digital marketing effectiveness

Think of your website as command central. Social posts, email blasts and other activity should drive users back to your site. Your website, then, measures the effectiveness of all of your digital campaigns that promote your products/services.

Do you need help using Google Analytics to evaluate your marketing efforts? Let’s talk! Contact Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and internet marketing experts.

The Word of the Year: Complicit

And the winner is . . . “Complicit”. Every year Dictionary.com identifies the one word that has impacted us the most. At Dictionary.com, the Word of the Year serves as a symbol of the year’s most meaningful events and lookup trends. Just as Time magazine names its person of the year–that individual who has most influenced the world’s news–the Word of the Year is that word that has popped up in the most conversations. Dictionary.com’s decision is data-based; they can track and review the number of searches over the course of the year.

Complicit means “choosing to be involved in an illegal or questionable act, especially with others; having partnership or involvement in wrongdoing.” Being, at some level, responsible for something . . . even if indirectly. Those who stay silent and do not speak out are also complicit; by not being against something, we are condoning it.

A year filled with political chaos

In a year that has been filled with an unprecedented level of political chaos, “complicit” is a word that has filled the headlines for a year. It began with the inauguration, and it steadily gained momentum. From Russian mafia to officials at the highest levels of government, the Trump administration seemed to be complicit with all of them.

Complicit experienced a huge spike on April 5

The largest increase in lookups for complicit–up more than 11,000%–was on April 5, when Ivanka Trump tried to redefine complicit. CBS’ Gayle King asked her about the accusations that she and her husband, Jared Kushner, were complicit in the actions of her father. Her response: “If being complicit is wanting to be a force for good and to make a positive impact, then I’m complicit.”

It’s important to note that complicit is not one of those words that can have both positive and negative connotations, depending on your orientation. There’s nothing positive about this word. Being complicit is negative. It means that a person is involved with someone or something that’s wrong. Politics aside, whether you’re a conservative or a liberal, the meaning of complicit cannot be construed subjectively. Ivanka Trump went on to cap off her own personal definition of complicit with “I don’t know what it means to be complicit.”

 Climate change and the Trump administration’s complicity

For years we’ve been learning about climate change and how we’ve damaged our environment. We all have worked to decrease our footprints, determined to become better stewards of the environment. Companies began rethinking their business models, communities incenting their citizens for embracing clean energy. Solar power and windmills became more affordable and the technology improved. Yet Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement, and his EPA chief has been complicit in his refusal to acknowledge that humans play a primary role in climate change. Information on climate change was removed from the government’s website this year. If only it were that easy. Removing it from a website won’t make it go away.

During the past year we have seen the extreme weather conditions that have brought widespread destruction that climate change can wreak. Terms like climate change, global warming, and carbon dioxide all showed up trending searches this year.

Power and sexual assault

In 2017, allegations of sexual assault were made against a growing number of powerful men, resulting in the resignation and firing of people across multiple industries. Film executive Harvey Weinstein emerged as a longtime predator after numerous women stepped up to tell their stories of sexual assault that lasted for decades. Even worse—his complicit staff covered up for him, often arranging his sexual shenanigans. Weinstein’s downfall inspired other assault survivors to come forward with their own stories.

Dictionary.com has used its platform to make a data-driven political statement. But the bigger message may be something we’ve always known, that words have the power to shape dialog and the way we interpret events.

Having trouble harnessing the power of words for your business? Talk to us at Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and internet marketing experts.