Nowadays, most companies conduct a large part of their marketing online. A social media presence and pay-per-click ads are now staples for creating leads and sustaining interest.
With that in mind, you may assume mailing services are no longer a worthwhile expense for your marketing budget. But you would be wrong.
Stats from the DMA reveal that 66% of respondents keep useful marketing mail compared with the 51% of emails that are deleted in just two seconds. Physical mail that your clients have to pick up and look over is clearly always going to be useful. When it comes to reaching new customers, especially, physical still seems like the way to go.
The problem is that you’d be right to assume that spending a fortune on marketing mail is no longer efficient. With your marketing budget now split in a variety of ways, you’ll first want to think about the following ways to keep your physical marketing costs as low as possible while still creating results. That way, you needn’t compromise anywhere!
Minimise orders
One of the simplest yet most efficient ways to keep costs down would be to minimise your orders. Of course, you need to keep marketing as widespread as possible if you’re to see success, but the chances are it’s no longer efficient to order hundreds or thousands of units every time. Instead, turn your stock control prowess to the matter to keep costs reasonable. While printing higher volumes does often lead to lower costs per item, be sensible. Sometimes, even a deal won’t beat the value you could get from simply ordering less in the first place. Yet, doing so guarantees that you’re not left with outdated direct mail that’s profit down the pan.
Be careful with printing
Think hard, too, about your choice of printing. Like digital marketing, digital printing can seem like a no-brainer, but that isn’t always the case. By comparison, traditional methods like litho printing often work out cheaper and can help to produce a more varied finished product. Whatever you do, don’t opt for digital because it’s the ‘done’ thing. Instead, shop around for the most affordable printing services you can find, from companies that are willing to do you the best deal.
Go single-sided
Double-sided mail is, obviously, going to cost more in printing. Unsurprisingly, expenses here can be as much as doubled. As such, the last and perhaps most vital way to save money would be to opt for single-sided. This needn’t damage your marketing chances if you’re sure to include all the information necessary on that one page. Yet, it could make an ROI far more likely as your printing costs plummet.
A final word
Make no mistake about it; marketing mail still matters a great deal. By finally getting on top here, you could create an astounding amount more conversions than your online efforts manage at the moment. Simply be sure to consider costs, and settle on a physical marketing budget that guarantees the results you’re after.
