Extend the Life of Your Direct Mail with Digital Display Ads

by aschmidt

direct_mail_and_digital_display_adsIf you lean heavily on direct mail as your primary marketing method, you’re probably well aware that your campaigns typically have a short shelf life, even if the conversion rates are high at the beginning. Response rates have a tendency to drop dramatically within a relatively small window of time after your mailing has been completed.

But don’t make the mistake of thinking that it is what it is, and direct mail is the only effective form of advertising for your campaign – the digital landscape can add plenty of life to your campaign when used along with direct mail. Here’s why combining direct mail with digital display ads is a great idea:

Smart marketers realize that the most powerful response rates come by utilizing a combination of direct mail and digital advertising to produce laser-targeted results. Both methods have their strong and weak points; for example, direct mail is one of the most sure-fire ways to reach a recipient, but due to size and space constraints it can’t provide as much content and information as a digital medium (e.g., a web page). Web-based resources can often do a better job of pre-selling a prospect by way of providing virtually unlimited information about a product or service, but visitors must be directed to the website first, which is far from being an exact science.

So how exactly would this “one-two punch” of direct mail and digital display advertising work? Here’s an example of what it would look like:

Punch #1: You set up a direct mail campaign using postcards that will direct prospects to a landing page that is solely focused on your offer. The postcard will feature an easy-to-remember custom URL specific to that campaign, which will keep customers from getting lost on your website. Sometimes marketers make the mistake of directing their visitors to the main home page of their website; this is way too general, and will leave your prospects feeling like they’re trying to find a needle in a haystack. An effective postcard will direct prospects to only one specific offer, using a URL created just for that offer.

Punch #2: Once your prospects are on your landing page, some will convert quickly while others will take time to “incubate.” You don’t want to lose those visitors who aren’t ready to make a buying decision, so you decide to utilize retargeted or IP-targeted ads to help you follow up with leads that may convert later down the road.

Many companies utilize a technique where they set up a highly targeted digital display advertising campaign that is timed to coincide with their direct mailings, and then in addition, they add social media to the mix to really increase exposure and more effectively target their prospects. With this type of digital follow-up to the physical mailers you’re sending out, your campaigns last way beyond their postmark date.

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