Direct marketing covers a wide variety of marketing materials such as brochures, catalogues, postcards, sales letters and much more. It is used by many companies because it is one of the most effective direct marketing actions to reach new or existing customers .

What is the benefit? Unlike other forms of advertising, where we are not 100% sure that the message actually reaches the right person, with postal mail we can reach our target directly , establishing one-to-one communication, checking who the recipient is, when the delivery arrives, how and how many people we can actually reach.

The advantages of postal marketing

In an age where the web allows us to constantly communicate with anyone in the world, it's strange to talk about snail mail again. But unlike email marketing, it doesn't compete with 12 other emails in a day, postal marketing has less competition and is also presented in print, making it easier for the recipient to read the content.

To create a truly effective direct mail marketing campaign, we need to start with the basics: we need to ask ourselves what we want to achieve and how our competitors behave. By learning what they do, we will see if the communication works or if it is incisive or convincing enough, especially for products similar to those we are selling. Direct mail advertising has many benefits:

• Communicates directly with the customer, contains clear commercial information , without added steps;

• It has low costs ;

• It allows SMEs to communicate like a large company;

• It has high conversion rates ;

• Provides immediate and verifiable results

Considering that email marketing takes care of all aspects of the campaign, from design to delivery, there are at least four steps to consider when we start thinking about a strategy.

1- Target Audience

The only way to be successful with a mailing campaign is to make sure you are reaching the right people (and know where they live!). Companies often start from an existing consumer database, but targeting growth in this way will be difficult to achieve. Some companies will want to target a wealthy target, others large families. Everyone, by selecting the right contacts, will be able to call their recipient “by name”, an activity that has proven to be highly effective for advertising success.

Therefore, the first secret to learn is to build a targeted contact list that will lead to better results. To ensure success, it is useful to enlist the help of third-party companies that deal with data enrichment and can track down new, correct addresses for our offer.

2- Attract attention with graphics and content

It is obvious that a well-designed letter draws more attention than a bland communication. We must focus the content so that it responds to the needs of our consumer, completely avoiding resorting to “tricks”: an example of this is writing “urgent” at first glance, when there is nothing in the communication that justifies its use.

3- We give the target a reason to be interested in us

Does the content of our email have a strong call to action ? We can propose a promotion, a discount code or a barcode to use on the site. Let's prepare an offer that really attracts the customer, even if it seems exaggerated. We always think in perspective.

4- Control of results and the importance of monitoring

Yes, we can verify the effectiveness of our email marketing campaign, even if it is offline. Some studies show that the return on investment is 4.4% compared to 0.12% for emails.

These percentages seem very low, but as with any marketing action, they are justified in the long term: not everyone will be convinced to buy just because we have sent them a postcard at home; in fact, we often contact a target that is not yet ready . That is why we never talk about a single postal marketing action, but rather about a real strategy.

For example, when we know that our email has arrived, we should not wait too long to contact our target, since in a few days they will receive many more communications from other companies, and we may run the risk of our message being forgotten even before it has been received. A good method in this case could be a combination of actions: sending a coupon or a brochure and a follow-up call through telemarketing software a few days later.

Will postal communication also be effective in 2025?

An interesting study published by Canadian Post has shown that postal mail marketing receives 20% more responses than digital media communications and that users attracted by this type of communication pay 39% more attention to it. 47% of people who visit a store have done so because they have received a brochure or communication in the mail. This is because a campaign of this type is based on particular care in the selection of the target.

In addition, direct mail advertising allows for a high level of measurement . By adding offers or coupons to be presented in-store, we can monitor the response to our action. It may be sufficient to include an expiration date for the use of the coupon, in order to also keep under control the differentiated mailings that are part of our strategy.

The explosion of Big Data that we have witnessed in recent years not only translates into more effective online communication, but also into the resurgence of activities that we thought were forgotten, but today they are more powerful than ever thanks to data. The integration of regular and digital mail can only bring benefits: with direct mail we make ourselves known thanks to the great attention it receives, while with digital activities we attract our users when they begin to collect information about us.

The importance of “physical contact” remains high, even in these times. Sending a welcome kit to a consumer who has just purchased a product from our company, for example, will bring satisfaction and generate the loyalty necessary for a long-lasting relationship. Postal marketing gives us the opportunity to apply creativity to these new opportunities that have also opened up thanks to hyperconnection: let’s not let them slip away!