8 UNIQUE TACTICS AND DIGITAL TOOLS TO ENHANCE YOUR DIRECT MAIL CAMPAIGNS

At DME, we often get new customers who come to us looking for something more in a direct mail campaign. Many have tried and failed with other direct mail providers, mainly because they were attempting the same old boring campaigns over and over again. That being said, it is incredibly important to identify and understand the various tools that can be integrated into your direct mail campaigns in order to improve response and conversion rates, and ultimately ROI. Here are a few examples of tools and tactics that can put a new face on your traditional direct mail campaigns.

1. Tactic – Live Chat Pop Ups and Nudges for Visitors

Tools to use – Qualaroo and Chat Service

Purpose and Overview – Increase conversion rates for targets that visit your PURL and/or website with live chat options and visitor nudging. Nudging is similar to a chat popup, but the messaging can be personalized based on a user’s actions and presented in a way that would push them further along the conversion funnel. You can also collect valuable feedback and actionable insights to understand more about your audience…and use that to your advantage.

1. Tactic – Marketing Automation

Tools to use – Net-Results, Marketo, Silverpop or Others

Purpose and Overview – What if you could identify targets in your list – including all name and demographic information – once they visit and return to any of your other sites, at any time (not just the PURL tied to your direct mail piece)? That’s pretty powerful stuff. Lead score your customers based on actions they do or don’t take. You can even have an autoresponder reach out if that visitor takes a certain action that would raise his/her lead score. Create segments and optimize your next mailings with messaging specific to where a customer is within the conversion funnel. Now that’s smart marketing.

1. Tactic – Visitor Recording and Heat Mapping

Tools to use – Inspectlet, ClickTale or CrazyEgg

Purpose and Overview – Recording and heat mapping allows you to gain a deeper understanding of why your campaign visitors do or do not convert. These tools will allow you to segment your visitors and watch recorded browsing sessions in order to analyze and optimize the campaign. Remember, it’s always easier to generate twice-as-much revenue by doubling your conversion rate, than it is doubling your traffic.

1. Tactic – Integration with Display and Social Retargeting

Tools to use – Adwords Remarketing or Retargeting Vendor and Facebook Exchange

Purpose and Overview – With retargeting you can display ads to your audience all-over the internet – all they have to do is visit your site once. For direct mail campaigns, retargeting code can be placed on a PURL, website or other landing page. It allows marketers to target users who got to a certain step of the conversion funnel but did not convert. It also allows for upselling to those users who did. And with Facebook exchange you can now target visitors on Facebook, which in turn will allow you to target any of their friends with your offer. Now that’s how you increase conversion rates and extend your campaign’s reach at the same time.

1. Tactic – Deep Segments and Multi-Channel Funnels

Tools to use – Google Analytics, Omniture or Others

Purpose and Overview – Identify all the steps a visitor took to convert, including where the largest leaks in the conversion funnel are. These tools will also help identify common devices, browsers, and other attributes that helped or hurt your conversion rate. All of this leads to actionable insights that lead to highly optimized marketing campaigns.

1. Tactic – Calculate ROI in Real Time

Tools to use – Mixpanel, Kissmetrics or Others

Purpose and Overview – These analytics tools will give you the power to assign a dollar amount to every visitor, in every segment, with every conversion. It even enables you to calculate average lifetime value down to the user or segment level. We all know a deep understanding of ROI is key to any optimized marketing campaign, and these tools can take you one step closer.

1. Tactic – Variable Sharing on your PURL

Tools to use – DME or other service provider

Purpose and Overview – There aren’t many things cooler than the ability to share specific and personalized imagery, offers or anything else unique with friends/family/colleagues. It isn’t hard to understand why your audience is more likely to share something that is customized and unique to them, than something generic. Something as simple as allowing a visitor to share something personalized will extend the reach of your campaign and lead to a greater number of referrals and conversions.  Plus, it’s pretty darn cool!

1. Tactic – QR Codes and NFC Chips

Tools to use – DME or other service provider

Purpose and Overview – There are a number of purposes and tactics for incorporating QR and NFC technology into your direct mail campaigns. Examples include: QR Code list sign-up on direct mail pieces to help grow email database, NFC stickers or QR mailings that will allow immediate mobile conversions, QR codes that trigger app download and location-based maps/navigation to your business’ physical location. This is just the tip of the iceberg, and the possibilities are endless.

These are just a few tactics and tools you can use to breathe some fresh air into your direct mail marketing and help bridge the gap between physical and digital channels. Have questions, suggestions or comments? Share them in the comment section or feel free to reach out to us directly through our contact form.