Direct Mail Ideas: How An Old School Method Is Still Relevant TodayDirect mailing, despite the emergence of other methods of direct marketing like spam emails and telemarketing continues to be attractive to marketers today. In fact, it handily leads other methods of direct marketing. This is due to the utility of direct mailing when it comes to sending information and calls to action to very specific markets as well as its use in gathering information about the market where the direct mail was sent to. Direct mail also offers the chance to use direct mail ideas in terms of the creativity of the package, among other things. Direct mail, unlike other forms of direct marketing, can engage all the senses of the recipient. Taste and scent samples can be sent through the mail. Tactile experiences can also be transmitted through mail, whether it is from cloth samples or the texture of the packaging and contents. Other mediums cannot hope to replicate this ability to keep all the senses occupied. This allows great variation in creativity and direct mail ideas.
In the conventional sense of mail being messages being printed or written on paper, there are still quite a lot of direct mail ideas that could be used and exploited. One example is using formatting and spacing and writing styles that will draw recipients into reading the entire piece written. Few recipients of unsolicited mail will for instance, be inclined keep reading if the first few lines seem bland and ordinary. And if the information is not even read at all, then the whole process of sending the message becomes a waste of time, effort, and precious natural resources. If you fancy yourself an environmentalist, think of it the way, the better the writing, the fewer trees needlessly wasted in order to send a message and a call to action. Direct mail ideas in the unconventional sense have been used to great effect in the past. For example, some companies once sent direct mail bundled with little games where the recipient had to scratch out boxes to see if they won a prize. This proved to raise product recall and response slightly. But things changed when some companies started including pennies with the direct bundles. This act of including pennies invited immediate response from many recipients and much better brand recall was achieved. A more common direct mail idea especially used by magazine is sending out promotional items or giving the promise of promotional items once a certain action, like subscribing to the magazine, is taken. This ensures better brand recall and identification as well as helps develop positive concepts in a market about the company sending the promotional material. Direct mail ideas also extend into the realm of how direct mail is actually used. Direct mail has been used by non-profit groups to solicit for funds, effectively mixing the disciplines of fundraising and marketing. Some religious groups, such as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, commonly known as the Hare Krishnas have been well known (or notorious depending on how you look at it) for such practices in some areas. Direct mail has also been used to promote political agendas or to call attention to certain issues. Another unlikely use of direct mail that was found to be unusually effective is to promote websites. Direct Mail, unlike electronic mail spam, tends to have better recall, even when it is discarded, due to physical contact with the material among other reasons. Direct mail ideas will continue to evolve and develop with society and the practice of marketing. This old school method promises to continue to be relevant even in the future. |