Consumers Respect, Respond to and Trust Direct Mail

I recently read an article in Harvard Business Review – Why Marketers are Returning to Traditional Advertising.

Consumers Trust Traditional Advertising

One of the most important reasons has to do with Consumer trust in traditional advertising. They quoted a Marketing Sherpa survey that found that the top five most trusted advertising forms are all traditional.

Consumers trust print advertising (82%), television advertising (80%), direct mail advertising (76%), and radio advertising (71%) in terms of making purchasing decisions.

Consumer-facing companies are leading the shift to traditional advertising. B2C service companies are predicting the largest increase in traditional advertising spending (+10.2%). This is followed by B2C product companies (+4.9%).

Ironically, companies that earn 100% of their sales through the internet are leading this charge. They are predicting an 11.7% increase in traditional advertising spending over the next 12 months.

Breaking through the Digital Clutter

As consumers are spending most of their waking hours online, it seems they are becoming increasingly numb to conventional digital advertising and engagement. They report frustration and negative brand association with digital advertising clutter that prevents them from reading an article, watching a video, or browsing a website. For example, a HubSpot survey found that 57% of participants disliked ads that played before a video and 43% didn’t even watch them.

Just think – it’s not just that they don’t watch the ads – they actively dislike the brands that show them. That’s even worse.

As a result, marketers need to find other alternatives.

Scalability

OK – this wasn’t in the Harvard Business Review article – but this is important. For businesses that are local, you can scale your marketing to your local area. This is a big deal on terms of cost. All these fancy articles spend a lot of time talking about big brands, their TV ads and their huge media buys. Most of the businesses in the U.S. don’t have those kinds of budgets and that kind of reach.

That’s another great reason why direct mail is such an awesome media channel. Small businesses can afford to use it because they can target their best prospects. And remember, consumers trust direct mail.

Postcard Marketing is “in”

Many B2C companies are utilizing postcard marketing to ramp up their direct mail. Postcard marketing gives your business an edge over the competition. An eye-catching, well-designed postcard is a hugely effective way to reach your target audience and engage with them.

Postcards can be great for your branding. They are a great way to introduce your business to new customers, promote sales or holiday events, show off new products, or simply “hello” to your customers.

Postcards are one of the easiest ways to market your business. They provide great ROI.

MyDMpostcards.com offers B2C companies lots of customizable postcard templates to choose from.

Leveraging digital in traditional media

Digital technology can leverage traditional tools in powerful and surprising ways.

When mailers include a QR code, they give consumers a chance to can scan to learn more. Studies have shown that they actually use them.

QR codes also allow marketers to gather extremely useful information on the back end. This lets them develop marketing analytics regarding ROI and attribution. One of the beauties of direct marketing is the ability to analyze response. And, tweak the campaign based on the findings.

Every time I hear someone say direct mail is dead, the hair on the back of my neck stands up.  I tell them to rethink, do a little research and get with the program.

BTW – You can read the entire Harvard Business Review article here.