Direct Mail has been inseparable from technology since the
days of the earliest database-driven campaigns. The marketing mix has changed
dramatically since then, with an explosion of digital channels—but direct mail
remains one of the most effective hands-on tools to reach customers and spur
prompt action. “When you want someone to attend an event, make a phone call, or
do anything with higher touch, you still see people go back to physical mail,”
says Ray Wang, principal analyst at Constellation Research.
Looking to refresh your direct mail strategy? These five
tech trends can do more than put a new gloss on old messaging. They can turn
your campaigns into omnichannel experiences that last long after the delivery
date.
Triggered digital content
Mailers can do more than deliver messages on a page. A quick
scan, swipe, or tap of a smartphone can turn a mailer into a gateway to
personalized content, promotions, and experiences.
Near-field communication (NFC) represents the next wave in
digital activation, because the tiny chips can be applied to virtually any form
factor and requires no effort on the recipient's part. Just putting a
mobile-enabled device in contact with the NFC chip is enough. “NFC is easy to
use, and there's no need for the consumer to load an app or initialize anything
if the phone's NFC abilities are turned on,” says Andy Bear, director of
multichannel marketing at Quad/Graphics.
There's a catch, however. Until and unless Apple opens its
NFC capabilities to third-party developers, NFC is an Android-only play for
marketers. In the meantime, consider campaigns that key off of presenting the
NFC media in-store, where kiosks and point-of-sale can trigger customized
content.
QR codes and other mobile barcodes remain a solid
alternative to NFC activation, albeit one long mired at a low point in the hype
cycle. Wildly popular mobile communications apps Snapchat and WhatsApp have
both started supporting mobile barcode scanning, which may increase awareness
and acceptance. “QR codes tend to get a bad rap because they're not
aesthetically pleasing, but marketers are learning how to use them better and
call more attention to reasons why you would want to scan the code,” Bear says.
Smartphone video is a common payload for direct mail
activation, because mobile video bandwidth and display resolution aren't the
challenges they were just a few years ago. Augmented reality (AR) plays well in
this space because a video can be overlaid on the mailer's content, providing more
context and connection with the material. “You want the video to feel like a
key link in the conversation, so you can present content and messaging that
aligns with what the customer learned from the mailing,” says Pat Spenner,
managing director of business advisory group CEB.
Delivery-triggered campaigns
Digital channels allow marketers to use direct mail as just
one piece in a multi-pronged campaign, which can be triggered to contact the
customer through multiple channels, including text, email, and app inboxes. The
key is to trigger the action based on delivery, which is possible through
conventional tracking systems for parcel and letter delivery, or with a high
degree of accuracy based on USPS Intelligent Mail Barcode reporting. “Seeing
the mail piece the same day you get the email creates a nice one-two punch,”
Bear says.
Rather than simply repeating the same message in the mailer,
marketing automation systems can apply location, time-of-day, and other
context-sensitive triggers to customize the digital content. That can be
something as simple as expressing the wish that the package brightened the
prospect's morning or afternoon, or acknowledging relationship details that may
have changed since the mail went out.
Mobile is the ideal platform to deliver these multichannel
messages because of how closely tied consumers and professionals are to their
devices. This intimacy creates additional pressure on direct mail–oriented
marketers to choose their timing and frequency wisely, however. Irrelevant or
tone-deaf direct mail may be shredded and forgotten, but a mobile experience
gone awry may not be quickly forgiven or forgotten. “On mobile, if your
relevance is on target, you could have a huge hit,” says Brent Shedd, Geometry
Global's executive director. “If your relevance is off, you can get your legs
blown off: ‘It's such a personal device that I'm loathe to forgive you for
encroaching on my personal space.'”
Retargeting
Marketers' customer insights don't have to hit a dead end if
an offer lands in the recycle bin. “You need to start modeling behavior of
customers who didn't purchase, because you can still learn if they visited the
website, followed the personalized URL (pURL), scanned the QR code, or did some
searching,” says Mike Arsenault, director of retail solutions at digital
promotions solution provider Revtrax.
Instead of simply measuring response and conversion rates
from direct mail campaigns, it's time to get more sophisticated about working
direct mail responses into the retargeting matrix. Particularly when a mailer
invites trackable behavior through a pURL, barcode, or other unique gateway,
marketers should consider the visits, searches, and calls that follow that
direct mail delivery when shaping the next steps in a customer relationship.
Even without a trackable call-to-action, a sophisticated attribution formula
can assign probabilities to customer activity that occurs near the known
delivery date of a mail drop.
