Today, as I was almost home from the office I stopped as I normally do to get my mail at the set of boxes centered in the complex. In front of the mail boxes are 2 large garbage cans set out near the playground. Normally I grab my mail and go, but today was different as I received an irritating bill and just couldn’t wait to throw it away, don’t worry; I have been paying it online forever.
Now point of the story is, I opened the trash can and it was full to the brim with postcards, cable ads, local gym ads and Cheap Hair Cut advertisements. Basically, Direct Mail; Direct mail is simply targeted mailings sometimes in the form of a packet of coupons, a postcard in various sizes or an envelope of coupons, like Val-Pak. Being in the marketing industry I just naturally pay attention to the types of advertising I see and how effective it is on people, I always thought it was nifty that our corner drugstore
has a miniature catalog sent as direct mail monthly. Interestingly enough when I look in that trashcan I see hundreds of jobs, talent and a whole lot of money. Now some may think, because you see that in a trashcan that it wasn’t quite effective, in fact do not discount the value of Direct Mail. Although often overlooked by marketing departments; direct mail can increase a company’s ROI (return on Investment) by 10 percent. So, how is it useful if all those advertisements are thrown in the trashcan and not in your pile of mail you bring to the house? Because just as if I brought mine into my house to look at later, they looked at it before throwing it away.. And after I looked at it in my home then I threw it away in my trashcan at home. The point is and what you pay for when purchasing advertising is to let people know you exist, or what new deals you have, based upon the contents of that trashcan, those advertisers certainly reached a large amount of customers.
With direct mailing many marketers forget that you need a number of touch points. People must see marketing pieces more than once to make the association.
Questions about direct mail? Visit us online: www.bottomlinemarketing.ca
Give us a call: 403 464 7559
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