Using Email to Prime the Direct Mail Pump
Wednesday, 30 May 2012 11:47
Using Email to Prime the Direct Mail Pump
Recently, we discussed using email as a follow-up to a direct mail piece to increase response rates. http://bit.ly/JNlM5e
But email isn’t just for follow-ups. It can be a powerful tool to “prime the pump” before the direct mail piece even arrives.
Here’s how it works. You prepare a direct mail campaign, then two to three days before the mail is set to drop, you send out an email alert. This lets people know the piece is coming and increases the chances that they will notice it once it arrives. The more people notice your direct mail piece, the more likely they are to read it and respond.
Another option is to actually make your pitch in the email itself, then see who responds. If people respond to the email, you don’t need to send the follow-up mail piece. This saves you from printing and mailing postcards unnecessarily. Set up good tracking mechanisms if you’re going to try this.
Don’t have email addresses to use in a cross-channel campaign of this type?
You can gather the information for the first time by doing a preliminary campaign using personalized URLs or other response mechanisms. Offer some kind of incentive for providing an email address and assure people that the information will not be used for reasons other than occasional client communication. What addresses you cannot obtain yourself, you can often obtain through a high-quality list provider.
Or you can reverse the order. Purchase a high-quality, third-party email list to match up with the names in your database, then follow up with direct mail to those whose addresses are unavailable. If you aren’t comfortable making the list purchase yourself, talk to us about doing it for you.
Either way, whether you use email to prime the pump for direct mail or as a follow-up to boost response, email is a terrific way to get the most “bang for your buck” out of your direct mail investment.
