There’s no doubt about it—digital marketing is more popular than ever. Every last available pixel and soundbite can be sold as marketing material nowadays. But oftentimes it’s hard to use digital marketing to generate local leads around your business. You can email, post on social media, and have the best website in the world, but that doesn’t mean that the couple living just down the street will know your business exists.
That’s where direct mail can help.
The Importance of Local Markets
The most important part of your business is your customers. And for many businesses, the ideal customer is the one who lives just down the street. Direct Mail ensures that your business or organization will reach your local market in a way that digital marketing cannot. Not everyone will follow you on Instagram, but everyone receives mail. Many people delete emails without opening them, but everyone opens their mailbox. Your online ad can be scrolled past in a second, but your postcard will be held and looked at. If you’re serious about generating local leads and spreading your message in your neighborhood, direct mail is exactly the strategy you’re looking for.
The type of business you have and the kind of products and services you offer have a direct impact on what type of target market you should be reaching. Considering the demand for your products or services, understanding the demographics of your neighborhood, and knowing about your competition all play a role in how best to market your business.
Not every business is lucky enough to have a corner storefront in a high-traffic area. And even those that do can sometimes blend into the monotonous retail-ness of the surrounding area. Using direct mail to market to your local neighbors will generate leads and ensure that your business will not be overlooked.
According to marketing expert Pam Moore, it takes 5-7 impressions for someone to remember your brand. Direct Mail offers a simple and effective strategy to impress your brand upon your local market. 3 rounds of mailing combined with an attractive banner and some yard signs? You’ve got yourself 5 impressions right there!
Direct Mail offers many different targeting options
Is a new pizza restaurant going to market differently than a hearing aid shop? Absolutely. Direct Mail can accommodate many different mailing needs. Here are just two of the options available to you through direct mail:
Every Door Direct Mail® – Exactly as its name suggests, EDDM® delivers a mail piece to every door on a postal carrier route. All you need to do is pick your routes and the mailers will be delivered to every home (and business, if you’d like) on that route. This strategy allows you to “blanket” an area with your message. A pizza restaurant, for example, might want to use EDDM® because just about everyone likes a good slice of pizza!
Addressed Mail – When sending addressed mail, you need a mailing list. This is where some narrow targeting can take place. Most residential mailing lists can include income, ethnicity, home value, age, children, marital status, and even buying activity and hobbies. Other lists can target new movers, new homeowners and businesses.
For example, if a company that sells high-end hearing aids wants to send postcards, they could create a mailing list that includes only individuals 60 and older, with a household income of 80K or more, within 5 miles of their business. Or if a sandwich company wanted to focus on increasing its catering presence in an area, it could mail a catering menu to office-type businesses that are 10 years or older and have over 50 employees.
The Versatility of Direct Mail
There are so many different types of products to mail and there are so many kinds of mailing lists to use. In short, there are so many great options for marketing your business when it comes to direct mail! You can mail a postcard, a brochure, a letter in an envelope, a flyer, and so much more—all in a variety of sizes. When you use direct mail, your marketing will never be stale—and you’ll be able to reach your local market and generate leads effectively.
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