How To Complement Your Digital Marketing With Direct Mail

3 Ways To Supplement Your Digital Ads With Direct Mail

1. Variable Data Printing

It’s important to be data-driven and strategic about your marketing campaigns to get the highest ROI, which is why more companies are leveraging the data they gather to increase personalization in their marketing materials. This isn’t just a fad — it’s proven to be effective.

• 91% of customers prefer to shop with brands that send them relevant offers and product recommendations.
• 80% of shoppers are more likely to buy from brands that deliver personalized experiences over those that do not.

Variable data printing, known as VDP, is a form of digital printing that enables you to drive personalization by easily changing elements such as text and graphics on each printed piece based on data gathered from various digital platforms, such as email, social media and your website. For example, you can use information from your e-commerce platform to send a direct mail coupon for a product that complements what a customer just bought from your website, seamlessly merging physical and digital marketing.

Valvoline, an industry leader in branded automotive and industrial products and services, did this by using direct mail’s VDP services to merge its digital and direct mail strategies by leveraging personalized URLs (PURLs) and VDP technologies to yield an in-store coupon redemption rate of 7.9%.

2. Print-on-Demand

When you’re sending direct mail marketing materials such as a flyer or brochure, the process typically involves a literature fulfillment component that includes producing and distributing printed materials. In the past, companies would print large quantities of these items to take advantage of bulk rates, but in today’s business world, printed materials can quickly become obsolete.

Print-on-demand (POD) is a digital printing technology that makes it possible to produce materials on an as-needed basis, reducing overhead costs and increasing agility and personalization in your marketing strategy. How? Let’s say a Florida real estate agent used to print 1,000 general postcards to send to all their contacts in the state with the same content and images. 

With POD technology, that real estate agent could use data from their customer relationship management (CRM) software to segment their client list into regions. This way, they can print personalized batches of 10 or 50 postcards for specific communities based on the client’s precise location — without slowing down the printing process or drastically increasing the cost of printing. 

3. Presorting Direct Mail

USPS Presort is a discount the U.S. Postal Service provides to customers when they sort their mail themselves before bringing it to the post office. This allows businesses to lower their postage costs and can also strengthen your direct mail marketing strategy by speeding up processing in the post office and therefore reducing delivery timelines. 

This can help your digital marketing efforts because digital moves fast. When processing and delivery time is reduced, your target audience can get your marketing materials faster. This gives your customers more time to take advantage of offers like, for example, a direct mailer with a coupon code for your website that’s only valid for a certain period of time. 

Businesses with large mailing lists that frequently send direct mail typically see the most benefits from presorting. At United Mail, our commingling service helps businesses save an average of 10-20% on direct mail — leaving additional room in the budget to enhance your marketing strategy even further.