THE EARLY RESULTS ARE IN

direct mail data and tracking

A Data Driven Study of how Postalytics Customers Stand out from the Crowd, Improve Conversion Rates, and Contribute More to Revenue.

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It’s getting harder and harder for marketers to stay relevant and engage in meaningful interactions. Marketing mediums such as Social, Native, In-app that didn’t exist a few years ago now compete for attention. These developments mean that while a marketer has more options to reach her target audience it has become more difficult to earn the attention and engagement of that user. What’s a marketer to do?

Everyone knows the positive results (up to 600% better) Direct Mail and direct marketing campaigns deliver. However, teams are often put off Direct Mail because of the cost, time and lack of tracking. At Postalytics we believe we have solved that problem by making direct mail work more like email – so it’s integrated, easy, and data driven.

Direct Mail Automation Makes Marketer’s Lives Better

Postalytics customers have been busy since our launch. Our customers integrated Postalytics into 240+ Workflows and Triggers, we added an integration with Zapier, and over 107,000 pieces of direct mail have been sent using the platform.

direct mail stats

In a world where data has surpassed oil as the most valuable resource on the planet, marketers need complete visibility from the top of the funnel down to the “last mile” to make a real impact on sales. Email tracking, Marketing Automation, Web Analytics all provide valuable data, however up until the launch of Postalytics the direct mail channel was void of data.

Direct mail automation, powered by companies like Postalytics, represents the cutting edge of a massive disruption in the $50b/year direct mail industry – an industry that is characterized by processes & thinking stuck in the 1990’s.

New Tech Combines Direct Mail and Email Marketing For Better Results

Analysis of early customer use of Postalytics’ direct mail automation offers a penetrating look at the results from 240 different direct mail campaigns, analyzed for conversion rates, impact on productivity, trends, industry and media performance, and more. For example, our customers tell us that 55% of their email non-responder contacts come back into the sales funnel using a direct mail campaign.

The data from Postalytics customer use points towards 5 interesting key findings:

  1. Marketers have a desire for quick wins that show contribution to revenue. 
  2. Tailored direct mail campaigns move prospects twice as fast through the funnel.
  3. While marketers have a good grasp of web and email activity and data, traditional direct mail tracking and measurement is at best very murky.
  4. Savvy marketers are employing new and creative tactics to wake dormant leads such as using direct mail and email campaigns in conjunction – generating higher awareness, engagement and ROI.
  5. How marketers are trying to separate themselves from the noise.

Read the full report to gain valuable perspective on seamlessly integrating direct mail into your marketing automation campaigns.

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1.) Marketers Have A Desire For Quick Wins That Show Contribution To Revenue

Revenue Growth is a marketer’s number one mandate according to Forbes Insights research. Yet most marketing teams struggle to achieve that objective. Rishi Dave, the CMO at Dun & Bradstreet, says only 30% of all companies achieved growth of any kind over the past year.

Instead of waterfall projects marketers are running agile, quick turnaround, small list based campaigns that don’t need months of planning or weeks of execution time baked in. Most organizations are taking a portfolio approach to their key initiatives. The key is to mix in long term and high investments plays like the roll out of a new ERP system with quick wins that can deliver immediate and measureable value to the business.

With technology playing a crucial role in today’s marketing mix and as the CMO’s marketing technology spend approaches the same level as the CIO’s, marketers want to work on projects that are faster, easier, and require less resources than a legacy IT project.

the early results are in - revenue and time impact of direct mail automation

One way project leaders can generate momentum behind their initiatives is to focus on quick wins – those changes that are quick to implement and bring immediate value. With so much pressure, limited resources, and already complex tech stacks, marketers have no time for heavyweight high touch solutions or processes. Marketers want lightweight, easy to use and easy to implement solutions that fit in with the tools they are already using.

2.) Direct Mail Campaigns Move Prospects Twice As Fast Through The Funnel

Marketers are challenged to influence the outcomes of their sales organizations, not just by generating more leads, but to provide real support and accountability for pipeline and revenue throughout the sales funnel. While marketers have been heavily focused on top-of-the-funnel lead generation activity, sales teams complain that just sending them more and more leads doesn’t help.

Direct mail is a time proven way to move prospects through the funnel. The Data & Marketing Association reports that Direct mail response rate is 5.1% (compared to .6% email, .6% paid search, .2 online display, .4% social media). Direct mail response rates have been increasing year over year, and with advances in direct mail tracking this trend is primed to continue.

direct mail response rates

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3.) While Marketers Have A Good Grasp Of Web And Email Activity, Traditional Direct Mail Tracking And Measurement Is At Best Very Murky

This lack of data is ironic considering recent trends in Marketing such as ‘building the machine’, ‘growth hacking’, ‘agile marketing’, ‘lean marketing’, all of which require data to drive experiments and continuously improve. In a world where data has surpassed oil as the most valuable resource on the planet, marketers need complete visibility from the top of the funnel down to the “last mile” to make a real impact on sales.

Leading marketers are using new Direct Mail technology, which integrates with their content management, customer relationship, and ordering systems. Piece by piece tracking of the postal delivery process gives marketers the data they need to understand the real impact of each campaign and based on a recipient’s behavior keep them moving through their tailored marketing automation workflows.

direct mail measurement

With direct mail automation, you can leverage the strength of direct mail marketing and avoid the email list issues. If you use direct mail for your initial outreach, you can direct your prospects to a landing page via pURL and use email for direct follow up. With automated direct mail, you can track which prospects navigate to your landing page, and how many of them reach their conversion goal. You can even target and segment campaign non-responders with follow-up mailings with the click of a button.

4.) Savvy Marketers Are Employing New And Creative Tactics To Wake Dormant Leads Such As Using Direct Mail And Email Campaigns Together

Direct mail automation lets marketers track direct mail deliverability by the US Postal Service. Marketers can now use this insight into deliverability to follow up via email. Research shows that following direct mail with email results in a 25% higher response rate than with direct mail alone. Other benefits to this approach is that you can increase qualified leads and web traffic.

With integration into CRM systems, marketers can send out timely, personalized email that augments the direct mail offer and messaging. Multichannel marketing can now be achieved with a minimum of time and expense. Postalytics customers see that these tactics are generating higher awareness, engagement and ROI.

It’s widely agreed that thoughtful and well-designed direct mail can have a meaningful impact on a client’s perception of your firm and also on your company’s pipeline. Personal letters from the CEO are great examples of a hard-hitting piece. However, often times marketers worry so much about the time investment involved in creating and shipping such assets that they fail to even start said projects.

direct mail roi

Savvy marketers are now incorporating direct mail postcards and letters into email drip campaigns, by utilizing triggered direct mail. By incorporating direct mail into their automation sequences, these marketers are standing out from their competitors and making a deeper impact on their audiences. They realize that if they run drip email campaigns that look like their competitors, they’ll get lost in the shuffle.

One tactic we have seen companies use very effectively is to use direct mail to reach out to non-responders in the database. Postalytics makes it really simple to implement:

  • Create a list of non-responders in your email marketing platform
  • Build your postcard or letter with the Postalytics drag and drop editor
  • Launch a campaign.

Campaigns setup takes a just a few minutes and can be scheduled for delivery far in advance.

Catering company Fresh City deployed this tactic to generate 113% ROI. By getting in front of non-responders with a highly visual postcard, they were able to cut through the noise and really resonate with a whole segment of customers they were losing out on.

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 5.) How Marketers Position The Value Of Their Company And Separate Themselves From The Noise

Bombarding customers with brochures and offers no longer works. Customers complain that they learn nothing new and continuous, low quality, disruptions impacts customer’s perception of a brand. How can a company stand out from the noise? How can they convey their value?

Technology advances take what was once a very time consuming and error prone task and make it easy. Automated, colorful and tracked postcards targeting non-responsive segments, such as email non-openers, are helping brands such as Fresh City and Keller Williams take the upper hand in the minds of their customers.

direct mail maturity model

Take events as an example where it has become almost impossible to standout. Many companies attend several industry events and trade shows each year, representing a large portion of the marketing budget. Combining direct mail and email marketing to invite and follow up on events is a perfect strategy to do something different that doesn’t break the bank.

Conclusion

We believe The Early Results Are In provides the data and fact-based intelligence on why direct mail automation positively impacts revenue and represents the cutting edge of a massive disruption in the $50b/year direct mail industry that is characterized by processes & thinking stuck in the 1990’s.

Postalytics works with marketers to automate direct mail and integrate it with an organization’s digital marketing strategy. To learn more, speak with one of our specialist:

Contact Postalytics!