What is Direct Mail Retargeting and How Does it Work?

What is Direct Mail Retargeting and How Does it Work?

In today’s high-tech, low touch world, it may be difficult to grasp the power of digital retargeting via direct mail since digital and print are siloed. If you’re like most marketers, you spend a lot of time and money driving website traffic.

The challenge is when most people reach your site, they’re not ready to buy. 

So, much of that effort relies on digital retargeting. However, did you know that the average CTR for digital retargeting ads is only 0.7%?

Before the discovery of email marketing, direct mail marketing was, and is still, effective at narrowing the gap between brands and their customers. As recently as 2019, the conversion rate for direct mail marketing reached as high as 5%!

Whoa! So, imagine combining the power of direct mail marketing with digital ad retargeting, that’d be sweet, huh?

No need to imagine, say hello to Direct Mail Retargeting!

What is Direct Mail Retargeting?

The what is simple, it’s the how that often trips people up. Direct Mail Retargeting is simply sending out a personalized letter, flyer, or postcard to a recent website visitor that didn’t convert. However, (with NaviStone’s solution) they showed a strong propensity to make a purchase, subscribe to a newsletter, or complete an application.

I know what you’re thinking. If they didn’t convert, aka did not give any personal information, how do you know their address? That question requires an in-depth technical answer, but if you’re like me, I need the simple version; a behind-the-scenes, privacy compliant process matches name and postal address to the data. That data may include first-party, IP, or email address.

Certain types of site visitor behavior create various triggers to send them a highly targeted mail piece.

Triggers like:

• Viewing service pages or specific products
• Downloading a PDF or other content without completing a form
• Browsing a home page
• A lapsed customer looking for help with a warranty claim
• Not completing an application or abandoning a shopping cart

6 Ways Direct Mail Retargeting Increases Marketing ROAS

Navigating the marketing landscape post Covid-19 is all but a clear path. Not to mention, the expectation to increase results with a tighter budget.

Retargeting via direct mail can be a valuable part of your overall marketing strategy because it reaches digital and print channel customers.

Here are 6 ways it can help with your marketing return on ad spend:

1. Supplement online marketing with a postcard
2. Test pricing strategies for your offline marketing channels
3. Build your pipeline for other efforts through other channels
4. Uncover more information about pain-points and potential obstacles keeping customers from completing a purchase
5. Establish a deeper connection between your brand and customers through a highly targeted mail piece
6. Stand out among your competitors and build brand awareness

Can You Relate to these Examples of Direct Mail Retargeting?

The various ways to effectively implement a direct mail retargeting plan are beyond this post. However, as consumers, here’s three examples many of us relate to.

• A visitor checks out a restaurant’s website, shows interest but leaves without placing an order, could be sent a postcard offering a free appetizer based on their browsing activity.
• If your goal is to generate leads, you could use direct mail to offer a chance to win a free industry report on a topic of their interest.
• You could also entice shopping cart abandoners to return by giving them free shipping, an exclusive discount, or another special offer.

Use Direct Mail Retargeting, or Else...

If you’re not currently using direct mail retargeting, you’re missing a key piece of your marketing strategy.

This is where you might expect me to produce irrelevant reasons why you’re missing out. However, I’ll let you decide instead.

4 Reasons Direct Mail Marketing is Still Effective

• Direct mail offers many ways to be creative. You can pair your digital marketing and social media plan with direct mail to streamline the customer journey.
• It stirs up an emotional response. We’ve all received letters in the mail that sparked nostalgia about times we’ve spent with family and friends. Add a handwritten note to create more of an emotional response from the recipient.
• Direct mail is interactive. People are more likely to hang on to a piece of mail if the incentive is to bring it to the store for a special discount.
• It also enlarges your territory. Since it reaches a wider demographic than electronic-only advertising. If your target audience is not on social media or uses email, you’re missing out on several potentially new customers.

Speaking of potentially missing out on new customers, direct mail marketing is a lot less competitive than digital marketing.  

It’s also easier to get noticed since most people will scan through their mail before tossing it into the recycle bin or on (at least in our case) the dining room table. Where it will remain for 3 to 4 days.

A colorful eye-catching offer has a much better chance of standing out than one of the 100 emails they received that day, or the relentless re-tagged digital ad that’s ignored.

Now contrast that with companies that only market via digital channels. You’re able to increase brand awareness without competing against all the other noise going on in our lives today.

Direct Mail Retargeting & CAC

Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) continue to rise. In the last five years, CAC has increased 60%, according to Profitwell. And even after all the effort you’ve put into driving site traffic, 96% of visitors are not ready to buy, though they show intent, and leave without converting.

So, direct mail retargeting gives you the power to create a hyper personalized message to re-engage with your potential customers. The best part is the ability to tailor you massaging based on their specific browsing habits.

Which drives revenue while mitigating CAC increases.

It's like having a crystal ball, except there’s no ball.

Retargeting helps your business by helping you:

• Enhance brand awareness and aid your customers in making informed decisions
• Increase conversion rates by 70%
• Optimize and control your budget, which equals smarter spending decisions
• Boost the potential to generate more sales

It’s not magic, however it comes close. Marketers grab their attention about items they showed interest in while using social media and a search engine to learn more.

On direct mail campaigns marketers sold $2095 worth of goods for every $167 spent.

Today’s consumers demand more from bands, and their top desire is personalized messaging because none of us want to feel like a number or treated like everyone else.

A better customer experience leads to increased loyalty, enthusiastic referrals, and increased revenue. All of which raises the lifetime value of your customers.