If you’re looking for a way to reach new prospects who may be interested in your products, services or nonprofit work, you may be weighing the options against your goals and budget as we speak. Two major strategies that differ quite significantly from one another are digital marketing and direct mail marketing.
But how can you decide between the two? And would it make sense to use both?
In our nearly 20 years working within both the print and direct mail industries, we at Integra have found that the answer depends on each unique business and what they’re trying to accomplish. Factors that affect the best marketing method for you will include your:
- Timeline
- Budget
- Product/service offering
- Audience
- Short-term goals
- Long-term goals
You may even find that a combination of direct mail and digital marketing will serve you best, and the two can be combined with a tremendous impact given the right implementation.
Since we offer direct mail services at Integra and rarely provide digital-only assets, we know how easy it would be to stray into a biased point of view. But if digital is the best strategy for you, it will serve you and us better in the long-term to know that up front. That’s why we’ve done our due diligence to put our opinions aside and assemble this list of benefits for each marketing method.
This balanced view of digital and direct mail marketing will teach you three inherent strengths of each and leave you feeling more confident and ready to choose your next steps in either direction.
First, we’ll discuss the pros of exclusively digital outreach.
3 Major Pros of Digital-Only Marketing
Digital marketing can take many forms, from email and social media to inbound marketing strategies on your own website. Paired with other forms of marketing, digital strategies are undeniably powerful and relevant in today’s marketplace.
But does digital-only offer any benefits?
Here are three top perks to keeping your strategy exclusively on-screen.
1. Lower Up-Front Costs and Efforts
We’ve all sent emails before — it’s as easy as typing a few words and clicking the ‘send’ button. It costs nothing per email, and it shows up nearly instantaneously in each recipient’s inbox. It really doesn’t get more convenient than that.
What’s more, when it comes to comparing the costs of direct mail marketing to those of emails and unpaid social media ads, the low-cost answer is pretty obvious. Digital outreach requires no printing professionals, no paper, no ink and no postage. All you need is an account for your business and some people in your email list or following your social media page.
This benefit applies primarily to efforts targeting organic traffic rather than paid online marketing. Some companies choose to stay digital but put some marketing spend toward their outreach efforts in the form of paid ads and sponsored social posts. Keep in mind that these strategies tend to take a bit more coordination for success.
While effective under the right circumstances, paid ads can also start to skyrocket your costs rather quickly. You may find that your digital-only strategy ends up being more comparable to a direct mail campaign than you expected if you choose this route.
2. More Editing Flexibility
When you print and mail a pamphlet, flyer, postcard or catalog, you’ll want to be absolutely positive that it’s free of errors in any form. A reliable, professional printer will give you the opportunity to review proofs in either a physical or digital format before your piece is printed, and they should also employ their own expertise to help you avoid errors in formatting, content and the like.
But there’s still the chance of getting something wrong, or even making changes within your business that would alter the relevance and accuracy of the content you’ve printed. And there’s especially no getting it back once it’s been mailed out.
The bottom line is that print on paper will never compare to digital when it comes to the ease and efficiency of making changes. On almost any website or social media post, you can easily change details with built-in, user-friendly editing functions. Your updates will take effect the moment you submit them, which means many people won’t ever even get a chance to see the mistake.
Even emails have an “unsend” function on most platforms, at least within the first few seconds!
3. Easier/Cheaper Mass Distribution
With unpaid digital marketing, you can reach as many people as your strategy allows without worrying about your budget. While you can choose your direct mail strategy and list length with budget in mind, you’ll still pay for printing and postage on each piece. The same doesn’t apply with an email or social media post.
Bear in mind that our use of the word “easier” here with mass distribution has more to do with the logistics of sending than it does with putting the campaign together. Both strategies require well thought out content and a list of recipients, whether that’s a house list or some other kind of data list sourced outside of your business.
But as for the sending itself, marketing exclusively on digital platforms means you can add recipients with a few clicks, follow up quickly, make more posts, send more emails and include more names without much additional effort.
3 Major Pros of Direct Mail Marketing
Most companies using direct mail aren’t exclusively using direct mail, so comparing these two options isn’t an exact science. Almost everybody in a business, nonprofit or association has at least an email address, and most have websites and social media presences as well.
That said, incorporating direct mail into the mix can offer some great benefits, with the three below in the lead.
1. Higher Engagement and Return on Investment
Market data has shown over the years that direct mail response rates can be anywhere from two to four times that of email response rates, on average.
Unfortunately, the ease with which you might send an email is the same ease with which somebody might delete and forget about it. Plus there’s the issue of the spam folder, which holds the power to thwart even the best email outreach efforts.
In today’s highly digitized world, direct mail has remained a strong contender for marketing to broad and targeted audiences alike. It provides a more personalized experience that will show more effort on your part. It also offers a tactile interaction that many appreciate more than digital, and it has the potential to stick around longer in your buyer’s physical space, making multiple impressions on them and their visitors.
Thinking about trying direct mail but wondering how long it might take for printing and mailing combined? Try out our timeline estimator below:
2. More Versatility in Distribution
Distribution is easier with digital-only marketing, but it’s nowhere near as versatile. When you print physical copies of your product or service catalog, you can pass those printed copies out to customers and prospects however you see fit. Options include:
- In store or at your brick-and-mortar location(s)
- At events like trade shows, conferences and job fairs
- Via direct mail to whatever lists of clients make the most sense for your business
- By online request, with orders placed online and shipments mailed as needed
- Any combination of the above options
Your direct mail campaign will require you to print copies of your message. If you think you might want to take advantage of additional opportunities to get your content into prospects’ hands, you can simply request extra printed copies or order additional pieces at any point after your mail campaign. There’s no harm in keeping some extras on hand in case interested parties request them.
3. Capability to Pair Digital Efforts With Mailed Content
While direct mail is distinctly different from digital marketing, it has not stayed in its own silo as technology has evolved. In fact, the hybridization of mail campaigns and digital marketing has only gotten more sophisticated over time, with no signs of slowing down. Today, you can use digital marketing efforts before, during and after your mail goes out to recipients to:
- Prepare your audience by letting them know they’ll be receiving mailed correspondence
- Track when the mail arrives in each individual mailbox
- Add emphasis to your piece within USPS Informed Delivery® emails
- Make additional impressions on social media platforms of your choice
- Run a cohesive campaign with related or identical messaging across all chosen platforms
- View response rates by incorporating specialized QR codes or phone numbers for tracking
- Track your ROI over time, especially with more than one campaign
We’ll use our own “direct mail with intelligence” program to explain a bit about how it works, but keep in mind that many printers and mail houses offer similar solutions. At Integra, we offer customers access to a SynergyMail add-on with each direct mail campaign. They can choose to add this service to a single campaign, all of them, a few throughout the year or none at all — when and how it’s used is hugely customizable to meet the needs of vastly different industries.
Each printer’s version of a merge between digital and physical mailing will differ, but the goal remains the same: Make more impressions on recipients to increase your brand awareness and boost the effectiveness of your message, while giving you invaluable insight into what’s working and what needs working.
Choose Digital Marketing, Direct Mail or a Combination That Works for You
Digital marketing, direct mail marketing and a hybrid model all have their place in the world of outreach. If you were fretting about which is the best way to go, hopefully you’ve learned that each one has merit and can work for particular businesses based on their unique goals, audiences and budgets.
At Integra, we tend to see more success for businesses that combine their efforts across both physical prints and digital outreach. But that’s not the case for every single company, and the best person to make the right call is you and your team.
Now that you know the benefits of each option, we hope you can confidently move forward with a selection that meets your needs and helps you raise brand awareness and achieve your goals.
If you’re thinking about starting up a direct mail campaign, you might be wondering what it’s like to work on a project with Integra. We’d be happy to help with your mailing or get some printed products ready for you to keep on hand for those hybrid marketing opportunities. Click below if you’d like to speak with one of our experts and get started on a game plan!
