Direct Mail Is Your Friend.

Today's Marketing Cookie is about your old friend Mr. Postage Stamp.

I believe that most people have had a dependable friend who would stick up for you, walk a mile for you, and help you get back on your feet if you fell on your face. They are a tried and true friend, and you can always count on them to be there, and you for them. Even if you haven't seen them for a while because you're hanging out with a new crowd, or have been distracted with a busy life, when you come back together, it is as if no time had been lost whatsoever.

As you know, I have been working in digital marketing before the invention of the Web browser. If you were to ask me how to reach your target audience over the past 20 years, at least part of my answer would very likely include some digital component. We live in a real-time, digital world and it is how our society communicates today. 

We were recently asked to help a company that had already spent nearly a million dollars trying to reach a C-Suite audience using nothing but digital advertising. At the end of all that money, they had generated less than two leads. (I'll let you do the math on that one.) With this specific challenge, we told our new client that digital marketing was NOT the answer. We went back to our old forgotten friend, "Mr. Postage Stamp," and forced them to give him a chance. Although we hadn't talked with him in quite a while, Mr. Postage Stamp was more than willing and ready to help us out!

Yep, we took the remnants of the budget and sent the target audience a series of direct mail pieces. The result was a twelve percent response rate! Yes, you heard me. I said twelve percent. Oh, and by the way, the response rate in this situation was defined as a "confirmed appointment to meet with a salesperson". When everyone else in the playing field had gone digital, our direct mail strategy broke through the noise and brought in more business in one week than they could buy with a million dollars over three months.

The lesson for today is that "shiny and new" does not always add up to a win. You must think about your audience. You must figure out a way to send them the right message, at the right time, and in the channel they prefer. We are helping our clients with social, mobile, and web all the time these days, but that doesn't mean every situation calls for the same prescription. I don't care what anyone tells you, direct mail and print advertising are your friends and are still viable channels. Don't be afraid to go "old school", because as today's fortune says, "a faithful friend is a strong defense".