People get more and more print mailings in their mailboxes. Despite the especially in dialogue marketing given importance of digital channels, direct mail is still an effective way of advertising. Nowadays, print mailings no longer necessarily have to equal mass advertising. A new generation of modern cross-channel dialogue marketing technology makes it possible to integrate print with digital channels and to produce automatically, highly personalized, and graphically individualized print mailings. To expand the digital cross-channel dialogue marketing with postcards, printed coupons or personalized brochures can be worthwhile. This blog post informs about the benefits of print mailings, automation, and application scenarios.
High Attention – Advantages of the Printed Dialogue
Printed dialogue is not just another way to respond to customer behavior, it also offers some advantages over digital channels. Due to the possibility of touching and feeling it, a classic print mailing in form of a real letter is often regarded as a valuable (often due to a high-quality desgin) supplement to digital marketing means in cross channel marketing. The possibility to touch it and the feeling that goes with it play an essential role in transporting emotions, which is not easy to reach in digital marketing.
It is also possible to customize and trigger print mailings via marketing automation. Based on data, modern and advanced systems are able to decide autonomously and automatically how to address a customer in which situation and via which channels.
Statistics Prove the Effectiveness of Print Mailings
51 percent of companies state that their marketing budget for print mailings is rising or remaining the same. 44 percent consider advertising via the mailbox channel as helpful – for comparison: search engine advertising is only consideres by 20 percent of those questioned as helpful. In a study on the perception of dialogue marketing tools, 92 percent of respondents report that they read personally addressed advertising mail (Statista).
Today, cross channel dialogue marketing is necessary for any company that wants to build long-term sustainable customer loyalty. A personal relationship between customer and company ensures that a company stands out the mass in times of oversupply. The basis for the following application scenarios is therefore to make personalized and individual offers to the customer – no matter in which scenario.
Example for a Print Mailing
Use Cases for Print Mailings:
Personalized Mailing
Direct mail makes it possible to gain more coverage in certain areas. Integrated response elements help to generate new addresses and leads. To archive this, there are several options: you can send classic envelope and flyers as well as promotional items or DVDs by mail. You are totally free to design it the way you want, but of course it should be personalized to stand out from “normal post office advertising” (for example from a delivery service or supermarket leaflet). There are different variants of the postal draft, for example, you can narrow down the delivery area or select the target group.
Follow-up for Shopping Carts
In the fast-moving digital age, we are often interrupted in our activities and postpone their completion to a “later” date. However, now and then everyone forgets about “later” in his turbulent everyday life, which is the common known fate of many shopping carts. At that point, companies can use print mailings to remind customers of their unfinished ordering process. Just like in an ordinary e-mail, the system automatically transfers individualized information such as transaction data to the print mailing.
Reactivation
If users are no longer responding to e-mails or mobile messages, or seems to be inactive in one way or the other, a well-designed print mailing can revive the contact. Nevertheless, well-designed not only means the print mailing has look beautiful, but it also needs to be highly individualized and enriched with valuable information for the customer. Those can also be reminders for consumer goods: for example, make him aware that his favorite wine, which he always used to buy, is currently on sale.
Welcome Series
Automated welcome series make a positive first impression. Surely your competitors know that, too. Digital messages combined with printed news that relate to each other in content ensure that they stand out. A QR code on the print mailing can i.e. lead first-time buyers to special welcome offers on your website.
Transactional Communication
A transaction mail is sent by the system after, i.e., an order has been placed in your online shop. The attention for transaction mailings (for example an update on the delivery) is usually very high – by a print mailing, however, it is doubled. Even though the customer cannot yet hold his ordered items in his hands, he at least receives a nice card that enhances his anticipation even more instead. The implementation is just as easy as with a normal e-mail. Again, the system adopts the data to the mailing and (in the best case) enriches it with other offers or useful information.
Loyalty Campaigns
A loyalty program offers many occasions to contact your customer. A printed “Thank you” card, which can be hold in hands, expresses more appreciation than a digital mail. Vouchers that link to specially for the customer generated sales also offer a variety of options for automated print mailings. Furthermore, print is suitable for service messages such as the score.
POS Actions
Use realtime print mailings to contact the customer at the time he visits you at the point of sale. Not only a conducted purchase – the use of the customer card or the in-shop consultation of a salesperson can also be occasions to trigger communication processes and to expand the customer loyalty. If a customer has been geo-fetched at or near the store, this can be the trigger to dispatch an individualized quote or a voucher.
Christmas Campaign
Enable your most important customers to send their own print mailings with a voucher to their loved ones. This is a “Thank you” with real benefits for your customers and their friends. By increasing the level of awareness and the possibility of new customers, not only your customers benefit but also your company!
Birthday Mailings
As almost every company sends birthday mailings nowadays, your own one can easily be overlooked. A print mailing, on the other hand, gets more attention. Here, too, offers such as coupons, etc., which via QR codes directly lead to a landing page with birthday offers can be great service as well.
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