Mike Ryan
In a world dominated by the Internet, it is all too easy to assume that email marketing reigns supreme compared to “old fashioned” postcard marketing. Business owners who buy into that assumption, however, can find themselves facing poorly performing marketing campaigns and disappointingly low returns on their investment.
The fact is, postcard marketing is simply a better choice for many different types of local businesses. Here are just 4 reasons to choose postcard marketing over email marketing:
#1: It works better, especially for prospecting and also for making sales.
There is no question email can be highly valuable for nurturing leads over time and for providing your audience with company news and other updates. But every business needs a continuous supply of new customers in order to grow, and for that, mail marketing – especially the small-but-mighty postcard – outperforms email. By 10-30 times, according to one study.
That’s because almost half of postcard recipients take the time to read your mail. Better yet, they take action. A Direct Mail Marketing Association survey showed about a quarter said they visited the company’s store and 21% visited their website. And that’s in addition to recipients who picked up the phone to call and set an appointment, etc.
It comes down to targeting. It’s hard to come by top-quality email lists for prospecting, whereas it’s easy to zoom in your targets using mailing list selection criteria.
#2: Your prospects prefer direct mail.
Most people find it creepy (or worse, violated) to receive unsolicited emails. Who are these people anyway, and how did they get my email address? But years of studies prove the majority of people love to receive marketing postcards in the mail. Postcards feel more personal and more trustworthy. There’s no doubt who it’s from, and no doubt what you have to offer.
Half of consumers specifically prefer postcard over email, according to a study conducted by Epsilon. Even more impressive, a full 70% of those surveyed said they prefer to receive unsolicited information via mail. For some product categories, that number can be even higher. It’s not surprising, really. Mail makes people feel more in control.
There’s something else working here, too – subtly but unmistakably. Your prospects can touch a postcard and interact with it. It’s “real.” People like that.
#3: That’s why they’re more likely to look at it.
People will relegate an email to the “spam” folder in a heartbeat, but they’re happy to “open” your postcard and check out your offer. In fact, postcard mailing deliverability is typically 95%. Email prospecting lists are dismal in comparison. But here’s a bonus: you can use postcards to boost open and click-through rates for email nurturing campaigns.
Because direct mailing is deemed trustworthy, it helps pave the way – letting recipients know the email you’re about to send them is legitimate and potentially worthwhile, not just something to be automatically discarded.
#4: It is more versatile.
Email certainly has its place. It’s great for nurturing leads and driving “mini-conversions” and it can strongly support certain kinds of inbound marketing campaigns. But direct mail does it all – prospecting, solicitation of referrals, upselling and cross-selling existing customers and win-back campaigns directed at former clients or customers. What former customer is likely to open your email?
It performs beautifully and consistently when used all on its own. It also adds unique value to integrated multi-channel marketing campaigns. It works to drive traffic to your website, enabling you to increase online sales or convert prospects to leads by capturing their email address for future follow up.
Postcard marketing simply has more going for it, in all the ways that matter. That’s why you should choose direct mailing over email marketing.
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