Why now is the right time for direct mail marketing

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During an unexpected crisis like COVID-19, it can be challenging to determine how to best market your business. With little to no foot traffic coming in physically, how can you best reach your customers? 

In this digital age, many business owners lean on email marketing to reach their client base; however research shows it may not be the best way. According to data from a 2018 Campaign Monitor study, the average office worker receives 121 emails per day! As you can see, it’s easy that your business’ emails could be lost among the masses.

To actively reach customers, companies should offer a diverse marketing mix, including not only email campaigns, but print, social media and direct mail messaging. Doing so is a great way to ensure you are reaching all of your customers, rather than just a small demographic. (Older customers may appreciate physical mail more than a younger customer who is probably following you on social media.) 

Direct mail campaigns, in particular, are making quite the comeback among all demographics. Now, more than even, direct mail is a great way to reach potential customers. Due to the coronavirus quarantine, many customers are at home every day. With tons of emails already in their inbox, a physical piece of mail is more likely to get noticed. In fact, many people actually look forward to getting mail.

Rest assured that sending mail during the pandemic has been deemed relatively safe by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization.  While not impossible, the risk of contracting the virus through mail is very low. Additional safety precautions are being taken by the U.S. Postal Service.

When sending a direct mail campaign, it’s important to send something that the customer can actually use. A coupon or incentive (with an expiration date) is always a great way to engage the customer and encourage them to make a purchase. Also, with the spring trade shows cancelled due to Covid-19, sending promotional items can be a nice gesture. What customer wouldn’t appreciate a bottle of company-branded bottle sunscreen to use as the weather gets warm? Other fun seasonally-appropriate ideas include sunglasses, seed packs, and hats.

It’s important to maintain a current and complete customer contact list throughout the year, to enable your business to market appropriately. Customer information should include name, email address, mailing address, phone number, company name, and in some cases additional information such as birth dates. The more information you have on your customer, the more you are able to do with it. 

The Postal Service, which was already struggling financially prior to Covid-19, has been greatly affected by the virus. You can feel good about sending a direct mail campaign as it will help the USPS, in addition to helping your business.

Murtaza Jaffer is the co-owner of EBC Printing of Trexlertown. He can be reached at [email protected]