Your Top 5 Marketing Objectives – Solved!

When we partnered with research firm ISG to survey B2B and B2C marketing strategy leaders to better understand their direct marketing objectives, strategies, and budgeting decisions, the results were clear: marketers are no longer relying on a single channel to fill pipelines, but rather the integration of many channels.

According to our research, 91% of marketers believe integrating direct mail and digital channels positively impacts campaign performance, from brand awareness to customer retention. More than half of marketers have integrated or plan to integrate email, SMS/MMS, paid social, and web video with direct mail programs. Additionally, 40% indicated they are currently integrating with display and connected audio, and one in four are integrating with native and CTV|OTT.

But why use direct mail? Is the offline channel worth the investment for each marketing objective? Marketers agree direct mail provides an acceptable customer acquisition cost (CAC), delivers high lifetime value (LTV) customers, and produces impressive response rates. The offline channel is well suited as an anchor platform for direct marketing programs because it can support the integration of digital marketing efforts for a targeted and profitable marketing strategy.

If your growth goals mirror our research, keep reading to learn how you can use an integrated strategy to reach your top marketing objectives.

Top 5 Marketing/Advertising Objectives

Customer Acquisition

Acquiring customers is crucial for any business looking for growth and increased profits. This rings especially true as consumers become more selective in times of uncertainty or financial strain. Adding direct mail to your customer acquisition strategy has many advantages including its impact on consumer decision-making and purchase behaviors. Therefore, marketers trust direct mail as a top channel for customer acquisition.

With support from polished offline data available for use during predictive modeling, direct mail stands out as a customer acquisition powerhouse. High-quality direct mail data contains valuable information on purchasing habits, demographics, and behavioral insights from reliable offline sources. Such precision is crucial in acquiring new customers as it helps to identify and engage with the most receptive prospects, thereby increasing the likelihood of conversions.

For customer acquisition campaigns, try pairing direct mail with…

• Social media
• Paid search/programmatic display
• Out-of-home (OOH)

Case in point: After relying on digital channels for initial brand growth, this streaming service wanted to expand its brand awareness and reach its untapped offline audience. Through sophisticated data modeling and machine learning, SeQuel’s data scientists were able to append a physical address from the brand’s limited first-party data. The streaming service acquired over a thousand new subscribers and achieved its CPA goal of less than fifty dollars during the initial mailing.

Brand Awareness

Did you know that nearly half of consumers tend to buy from familiar brands? This means that without a strong brand awareness strategy, businesses risk being overshadowed, overlooked, and forgotten. Luckily, direct mail helps 34% of brands create a powerful presence in the market. It is proven to elicit a strong emotional response, be memorable, and make products or services feel more valuable to the recipient.

But what if we told you that you could take your campaign success even further? With timely digital ads that arrive before, during, and after your mail’s in-home window, consumers are touched multiple times and across different platforms by your brand. This allows you to make an impression on prospects when it matters most. SeQuel Surround is proven to significantly boost your response while reducing your acquisition costs. So, if you want to increase brand awareness, combining direct mail with digital marketing is the way to go.

For brand awareness campaigns, try pairing direct mail with…

• Social media
• Linear TV
• CTV|OTT

Case in point: Looking for added growth channels, an identity theft brand decided to test direct mail’s ability to expand audience reach. Since launch, channel performance has been through the roof – converting over 2 million first-time members. The CMO now views the channel as “irreplaceable,” as it generates 40% of its annual sales and has driven more than $500 million in revenue.

Lead Generation

ANA data shows direct mail response rates and return on investment are higher than some of the most popular digital channels. Therefore, it is common for brands to utilize direct mail marketing early in the buyer journey to drive lead generation. According to our Direct Mail Marketing Benchmark Report, 38% of marketers consider direct mail an effective channel for increasing customer leads.

The data science capabilities, such as postal-to-pixel and reverse-append, even allow you to recognize your anonymous online audiences for print and digital retargeting campaigns. Then, keeping your leads engaged through additional digital marketing touchpoints like social media, SEO, email marketing, etc. will continue to move them further down the funnel. You can also use offline data, predictive modeling, and comprehensive testing to facilitate multichannel digital campaigns with ProspeQtor.

For lead generation campaigns, try pairing direct mail with…

• Paid search/programmatic display
• SMS/MMS
• Social media

Case in point: Looking for scale in a highly competitive market, an insurance brand tested direct mail to gain brand recognition and drive sales leads. The inaugural campaign immediately established the validity of the mail channel, producing a 1.85% lead rate and providing thousands of new leads and hundreds of new policies.

Lead Remarketing

Remarketing is an affordable and powerful way to reach your past, current, and prospective customer base. Four out of ten marketers rely on the mail channel to re-engage lost leads. The tactile nature of a personalized mailer can serve as a powerful trigger, sparking re-engagement and nudging hesitant prospects towards conversion. Add a limited time offer or a targeted discount, and you’re sure to reignite interest and prompt action.

While maximizing your marketing efforts in one channel may seem like a cost-effective way to target past customers, a mix of both online and offline advertising is the key to keeping your past customers wanting more. Experiment with different combinations of direct mail and digital touches to provide recipients with multiple ways to respond to your special offer. Plus, repeated marketing messages help reinforce your brand in their long-term memory. Don’t forget to use your CRM data to create personalized pieces and unique offers tailored to each customer.

For lead remarketing campaigns, try pairing direct mail with…

• Social media
• Influencer marketing
• Linear TV

Case in point: Rather than target past customers with a one-size-fits-all program, this specialty brand leveraged its CRM data to segment and retarget past customers and new leads with personalized direct mail. This strategic retention program now delivers the highest ROI of all the brand’s direct mail campaigns. It has also increased revenue-per-policy by 21% and multiplied the customer lifetime value by eight.

Customer Retention

Not only are you 70% more likely to sell to an existing customer, but it is more profitable for you to sell to a repeat customer than acquire a new one. Unfortunately, brand loyalty is harder to secure with today’s consumers than in the past. Through CRM segmentation and trigger-based campaigns, you can integrate your direct mail and digital marketing strategies to deliver the relevant and personalized messaging your audience values to build long-term customer relationships. This is a strategy recognized by 27% of marketers who utilize direct mail for effective customer retention.

Direct mail has the unique ability to capture consumer attention in a tangible and personal way. Print media allows for physical engagement, which can play a critical role in building brand trust and credibility – ultimately leading to more conversions. Our consumer benchmark study revealed that 42% of consumers engage with mail on a weekly basis, and 27% touch mail daily. In other words, 69% of consumers are interacting with direct mail each week.

For customer retention campaigns, try pairing direct mail with…

• SMS/MMS
• Email marketing
• Paid search/programmatic display

Case in point: A national non-profit aimed to enhance its direct mail strategy by transitioning newly acquired and past donors into monthly supporters. Leveraging their existing donor acquisition campaign, SeQuel initiated monthly mailings to all donor groups in the database to establish performance benchmarks. Using these metrics, SeQuel optimized the campaign by tailoring targeted messaging to the most responsive donor groups each month, achieving a superior response rate for recurring donors.

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With so many opportunities to fulfill your marketing objectives with direct mail, building a predictable and profitable program can feel overwhelming for even the most robust marketing teams. The Direct Mail Marketing Benchmark Report is your guide to channel performance, challenges, and opportunities. Click here to download a free copy to learn from marketers who are effectively leveraging the mail channel.

Our team of strategists are also available to help you determine if direct mail is right for your top marketing objectives. Contact us today to learn more and get your free quote.