Printed Direct Mail Versus Social Media Advertising [infographic]

If you are marketing to a younger crowd, you might think that your social media spend should be the priority. After all, the new generation is spending more time than ever online; right?

Printed direct mail is still an outstanding way to get in touch with your young customers

The short answer: Yes, they are — but there is a better way to reach them.

Printed direct mail is still an outstanding way to get in touch with your young customers, who will have more than AUD $1.9 trillion of total spending power by the year 2020. A full one-third of people under the age of 30 still look forward to checking the mail on a daily basis, and direct mail has a much higher open rate than email or social media chatter.

The bottom line: Printing still works in Adelaide, so do not forget this marketing technique while you are looking over all of those sexy articles telling you to create that Omnichannel Web 2.0 fully responsive social media campaign that, oh, by the way, will cost you a few thousand dollars.

• The secret to success with your printer is to target your audience specifically. Although every business will have a slightly different target, there are some ROI fail-safes that you can depend on.
• When in doubt, market to the woman in the household. Women are usually the ones who direct the household spending (80 percent of the time), and women pick up the mail in a married household 80 percent of the time. You can count on this tactic even if the product is not necessarily for the woman.
• Put vouchers into your direct mail correspondence. People are more likely to use an offer if they do not have to print it out from the internet. You can also use your coupon to direct your audience into your online space through a printed link. Fully 66 percent of people are also more likely to use a coupon if it is in printed form, so a strategy to connect it to your best-moving loss leader and upsell may be the way to go. Many companies also set up a vanity URL to test the ROI of a voucher program. Having a completely separate landing page allows a company to easily separate the analytics from a particular offer and the rest of its marketing strategy.
• You can and should use direct mail in a multichannel strategy. Some 62 percent of people are multichannel commerce users, meaning they look for a product on all of their media devices once they are made aware of its presence. If your direct mail piece entices someone, that person will probably look you up on a review site or visit you on your company Facebook or Instagram page before deciding to make a purchase. On every platform, keep your message simple, clear and, most of all, exactly the same.
• Direct mail works with social media. Social media is volatile without direct mail. Although every online marketer will uphold the validity of social media, the fact is that direct mail ROI has been consistent for many decades. Once you find your sweet spot, you will be able to count on that percentage of follow-ups for years to come. It is nearly impossible to judge the social media platform that will be popular in a few months, let alone years down the road. Your audience may quickly move from a social media site, but is much less likely to move so quickly from a physical address.

Direct mail has a much higher open rate than email or social media chatter

Your direct marketing strategy can be at the top of your customer acquisition strategy, especially if you are marketing to the modern generation that is moving into the serious workforce.

Although social media and newer marketing tactics are not to be overlooked, its ROI is not as sexy as new age marketers want it to seem. Watch the statistics — they will never lead you wrong.

Have you had success with direct mail? What worked best for you? Let us know in the comments, below.