Direct Mail Frequently Asked Questions
What is direct mail?
Direct mail is letters, brochures, postcards, or other items sent through the post to someone’s home or a business for marketing purposes to increase sales, gain new customers or keep current ones. It takes your message and places it directly into the hand of the recipient.
Is direct mail effective?
In a digital age where inboxes are inundated and digital ad channels are oversaturated, marketing tactics such as direct mail are becoming a bigger focus for integrated campaigns at all stages of the buyer journey. Direct mail has a much higher response rate than digital channels because its engaging. Remember you can't scroll past it in your inbox, it's tangible, you can hold it in your hand and you have far less competition in a letterbox than an inbox!
What types of direct mail are there?
Well, there is lots, such as: catalogues, gift cards, customer appreciation, promotional items, announcements, samples etc. and these can be sent out wrapped in biodegradable film or inserted into a C4, C5 or DL sized envelope with quantities up to infinity and beyond (millions).
You might want to share news, alert your customers about an event or tell them about an upcoming sale but you are sharing information to your database that gets into there hands.
Online scams have dented our trust in digital mail. Printed mail is trustworthy, authentic and credible, gets to its destination and doesn’t get caught up in the junk mail folder.
With so many websites to search on the internet, it’s reasonable to assume you won’t always appear on the top of those search results. How can you make sure customers go to you and not their competitors?
The answer is direct mail.
What can I personalise?
Personalisation used to mean placing the recipients name on the envelope but with our powerful tools you can have many data points throughout your campaign and recipients respond much better to more personalised direct mail. QR codes can also be utilised in your campaign.
Can direct mail compliment my digital marketing?
Direct mail as part of an omnichannel marketing strategy can also improve response rates. Campaigns that paired direct mail with digital marketing saw even higher response rates.
What if I don’t have a database?
There is a number of options if you don’t have a data base.
The first option is that we can work with you to determine a target market or demographic and source based on this. The result is a database of contact based on your own criteria that can used to target personalised mailing items.
The second option is using partially addressed mailing, again we source data based on a postcode area with the option for demographic profiling. These mailers are not personalised.
The third option is door drop which is based on delivering non-addressed generic items to a postcode selection area.
How long does direct mail take?
Here at Johnston Mailing, we have a great enthusiastic team that can get your campaign done as quickly as possible. We pride ourselves on our quality of service and professionalism.
You are based in Glasgow and I’m not; can you still help?
We deal with customers all over the UK and can post your campaign all over the globe.
What to I need to do to get my campaign rolling?
That’s the easy bit, contact us and we will do the rest.