A few years ago, a start-up business would have a decent logo, a set of business cards and letterheads (and possibly a leaflet or brochure), get a nice website designed and sit back, feeling pretty smug that they’d got the ‘marketing thing’ done. These days of course, it’s not so simple; the marketing mix of the modern day business consists of social media strategy, e-shots, video, SEO, guest-blogging and much, much more to capture the attention of today’s time-poor consumer. And that’s great; marketing has moved on as it should. But recently, there’s been something of a kick-back against all of the marketing noise that we’re exposed to on a daily basis – our inboxes are chokka with uninvited and unwelcome sales messages, we’re bombarded with a constant stream of adverts online and we can’t even log on to Facebook to see our friend’s wedding photos without being deluged with marketing fluff. And therein lies the problem – the marketing messages which companies have carefully planned, crafted, and deliberated over have become no more than an annoyance. So much so that many of us just block them out – we don’t even take any notice (here’s a challenge for you – I bet last time you checked your twitter feed there were several sales-driven tweets in there. Can you remember what they were? No, thought not).
So, as these things do, marketing has gone full circle. Direct mail is enjoying somewhat of a moment right now – a fantastic targeted way to achieve great results from your marketing budget. It’s quick, it’s measurable and it gets noticed – particularly if it’s personally addressed to the recipient.
As with any promotion, you need to keep a keen eye on costs and ensure that you know what you need to generate in sales in order to pay for the promotion – and it’s wise to use a mix of platforms to promote the same message. Direct mail is definitely a trend to watch out for – and you should be thinking of how you can take advantage of it.