Are you Seizing the Direct-Mail ‘Moment’?

“Direct mail is having a moment — seize it,” declared a recent blog post by the marketing giant Valassis.

In this fall’s political campaigns, many candidates, from the national to local levels, did just that—filling millions of mailboxes with cards and flyers. (And despite worries about post office problems, those flyers got through.) Their marketing experts knew the truth of the Valassis statement that direct mail is uniquely suited to this moment.

Of course, direct mail alone doesn’t win political campaigns. Similarly, for businesses, direct mail must be part of an integrated marking effort. But from both a political and a business standpoint, during this pandemic and struggling economy, direct mail is more important than ever.

Valassis research found that since the pandemic:

• 37% of consumers say they’re more excited to receive mail each day.
• 30% of consumers are spending more time reading marketing material received in the mail than prior to the pandemic.
• 46% of consumers say they’re more interested in receiving deals, coupons, and promotions via mail. 
• 84% appreciate the way brands have changed their advertising tone due to the pandemic.

Intuitively, we can understand why direct mail is receiving a new appreciation. While email inboxes overflow with remote work and shopping orders, physical mailboxes are comparatively less cluttered and more under the recipient’s control. And all of the pre-COVD benefits of direct mail are now amplified: It’s personal, educational, tactile—and socially distanced. 

All of which combine to make direct mail both effective (your message is more likely to be heard) and cost-effective for the sender (it’s targeted and the results are measurable). There are two ways to capitalize on the benefits of direct mail:

1. As a marketer, create effective direct mail pieces—in the pandemic economy, follow the rules for effective design, but also: focus the message on how your product or service helps people, use only images of safe, responsible behavior, convey empathy, and don’t look crass (as though seeking to profit from pandemic troubles).
2. As a print procurer, build the right vendor partnerships and processes so that you produce and deliver quality, timely direct-mail pieces that stand out in a positive way.

To look more closely at the second point—your partnerships and processes:

First, ensure that your print supplier is capable of providing the best quality, price, and service for the job at hand. Simply relying on a past vendor relationship won’t guarantee any of these—only a diverse, pre-qualified vendor pool will—because each print job is different and your business needs are always changing. 

Second, because time is money, ensure that you have an efficient print management process—that is, a software-and-service solution tailored to your workflows, which seamlessly procures, manages, coordinates, and tracks projects from beginning to end.

Every challenge contains moments of opportunity. To make sure your business is positioned to capitalize on the current direct mail “moment,” contact info@elynxx.com or 717-709-0990.