Direct Mail: The Perfect Way to Boost Christmas Profits

Direct mail marketing campaigns can be extremely useful for a business during the festive period, giving you a chance to stand out, at a time of year when customers are being bombarded with other forms of advertising.

Despite living in a digital age, direct mail has continually proven itself as a powerful tool when it comes to response rates. In the run-up to Christmas in particular, we’re typically feeling more receptive to festive marketing.

Canny companies won’t miss a trick! Recent research has revealed direct mail achieves a 4.4% response rate, compared with 0.12% for email. The creative use of envelopes, combined with advances in printing quality, has created messages that really stand out.

© Roman Samborskyi / Shutterstock.com

Digital fatigue

This creativity comes at a time when consumers have been feeling a little jaded with digital advertising following the Covid-19 lockdown. Analysts have highlighted the “digital fatigue” many people have suffered as a result of excessive media consumption through smartphones and laptops during the pandemic.

People have experienced exhaustion and burnout due to spending excessive time at home staring at screens. Nobody wants to see the same digital ad flashing up on their screen time after time. Why do ad blockers exist if people get fed up of being bombarded by repeated advertising?

Targeted advertising through direct mail can help your brand shine through. When a beautifully crafted piece of direct mail marketing drops through your letterbox, it can feel like a breath of fresh air.

Direct mail benefits

Direct mail is still delivering! As long as the messages are on point, with a design that has enough impact to cut through the digital noise, it has many advantages over email.

When you receive an item in the post, the act of picking it up and opening it requires more engagement and interaction than simply clicking an email.

In a survey by Royal Mail, 60% of respondents said receiving physical mail made the message more memorable. A separate study, by the Direct Mail Association, found 27% of direct mail was still circulating within the household after 28 days, giving the opportunity for the messages to be read again.

The perception that direct mail works only with a specific audience (mainly older people) is flawed. The argument goes that Millennials have been raised on digital media, so have little time for supposedly “old-fashioned” means of communication. This is completely untrue, as Millennials respond positively to direct mail too.

A Gallup poll reports 95% of 18 to 29-year-olds enjoy receiving personal letters and cards, so clever direct mail marketing can tap into this pull.

Christmas marketing plan

Now’s the time to start planning your Christmas marketing and advertising campaigns. Typically, UK consumers spend an extra 25% during the festive period, so there are plenty of reasons to try and point them in your direction. Get ahead of competitors and show shoppers what you have on offer – let them know why they should choose your products and services.

Start by reviewing your results from Christmas 2020. What did you feel worked and what wasn’t so successful? Look back at your best-selling products and what you had to practically give away in the Boxing Day sale. Obviously, last year wasn’t your typical Christmas, so maybe go back to the year before and have a look at those sales figures as well.

Use your experience to develop further the products and marketing means that worked and to try a new approach for those that didn’t. Identify your target audience and look after your clients, making their satisfaction a priority.

In doing so, don’t ignore other types of customers you wish to target, maybe with new products and services. If there are previous customers on your mailing list who haven’t bought from you for a while, think of ways to get them back.

Consider sending them a specific leaflet with a sentiment such as, “We’re missing you,” and offering them a code for money off their next order.

Choose a theme

Decide on the creative theme for your marketing, with striking images and a punchy headline. Getting this right and reflecting your brand to a suitable audience will leave you smiling all the way through Christmas.

When your advertising strikes a chord emotionally, it will stay in the back of your customers’ minds. Even if they don’t check out your products immediately, this will be on their Christmas “to do” list.

Once your campaign is set up, you need to make sure your mailing shot goes out to as many people as possible, or your hard work will be wasted. Many businesses use the services of a professional mailing house specialising in bulk mailing. This means large volumes of letters will be sent out to the many different addresses on your mailing list at a cheaper postage rate, providing a cost-effective mailing solution.

To help boost your Christmas profits by getting your message across to as many people as possible, contact Selectabase today and tap in on our expertise.