Direct Mail and e-Mail Working Together

A sustained marketing message is the key to any good campaign's success. Across the board, studies show that response rates increase when combining e-mail and direct mail marketing efforts. DM News has a good article out citing 5 key elements to consider when planning your next integrated marketing campaign.

1. Branding
Start with the offer and the creative. Your e-mail HTML should contain the slogans, logo and other identifying marks used in the print piece, and the channels must reference each other. Similarly, the e-mail subject line must repeat the envelope copy or a prominent line in the postal piece.The channels have different strengths. Direct mail confers legitimacy, e-mail is interactive and easy to use. But the message should be the same in both.

2. Timing and Frequency
In most cases, the first e-mail should hit a week after the postal mailing piece arrives (give or take a day or two). The printed piece goes first because it has a longer shelf life. E-mails should continue at regular intervals.

3. The List
Profile your customers, using a multichannel database, then select names from that
same database with identical characteristics for both mediums.

4. The Call to Action
Every piece in every channel requires a strong call to action. That is your close, and you should restate it multiple times.There are five critical components: Visibility, Verbiage, Direction, Immediacy, and, most importantly, Value.

5. Analysis
The channels have to work in harmony, and they have to be evaluated that way.

The success of a marketing campaign should not fall on the shoulders of a sale, but on the initiation of dialogue. To read the complete article, click here.