In a previous article, I have highlighted several reasons why you should consider using Direct Mail marketing instead of just using the modern online methods, today I am going to highlight a few more.
Direct Mail may be a method that’s not used by many people today, but that doesn’t mean that it is in any way less effective than it once was.
It most certainly is not any less effective compared to more online methods of marketing.
In fact, I’d say that it is a lot better.
A lot of people think marketing using direct mail is expensive.
Let me put that myth to bed right now.
1. Marketing Using Direct Mail Is NOT Expensive
Compared to most – if not all – online marketing methods, using direct mail is pretty similar with regrds to the investment required.
It’s certainly a better return on investment!
You see, many marketers will tell you that it’s cheaper to get people onto their email lists using Facebook adverts. What is interesting is that I can get people onto my list for nearly the same price using Direct Mail as the two images below show:
In the statistics above taken from a promotion where we compared Facebook adverts with Direct Mail (both promoting the same product), you will see that it cost me $9.08 to get a person onto my email list.
It also shows that the Combined Customer Lifetime Value (how much these customers who joined our list from this specific campaign have gone on to spend with us since they joined our list) The total to date is $7,425.25 and that amount will continue to rise.
But, now let’s take a look at the next image with some Direct Mail stats:
You can see that while I am paying $0.84 more to get a person onto my email list,… those subscribers from that specific campaign so far have a Combined Customer Lifetime Value of $11,742.42!
That’s a staggering $4,317.17 more!
The customers sourced via Direct Mail are worth $4,317.17 more than those sourced using Facebook adverts!… And again that amount will continue to rise over the months and years ahead.
What does that tell you?
Considering that I am paying out for paper, printing, and stamps, it costs me only $0.84 more to land a customer – who is worth $4,317.17 more to me – via Direct Mail.
How can that be?
It’s because online marketers are paying companies like Google, X (formerly Twitter) and Meta (Facebook/Instagram) to show adverts across their platforms to people who are very often not that interested in what you are actually selling.
Their algorithms are so super sensitive, they pick up what people are searching for and talking about, and then they show them adverts for those items.
The problem is… most people are ‘Googling’ and looking for all sorts of stuff… but for all kinds of different reasons.
A friend of mine was recently being shown adverts for air fryers after searching for a chef who had recently done a television show about air fryers. My friend was not looking for an air fryer; he wanted information about the chef.
Those companies who are paying Google and Meta to show their ads promoting air fryers to potential customers are now paying for them to be shown to my friend who doesn’t even want to buy an air fryer.
With that in mind… Direct Mail Marketing is better value than online advertising because your mailings only get sent to people who have already shown a strong interest in a specific subject… or have even bought similar products and services to yours already, and as we know, those customers spend more money with you in the long run.
Another point I would like to make with online adverts is that they are very often shown to people AFTER they have purchased a product they searched for.
When someone does a quick search for a product and then goes on to buy that product from an independent retailer, Google and Meta do not know that they have bought it so they blindly carry on showing adverts of that specific product to that person.
I dread to think how much money is wasted each day by companies running adverts through Google and Meta that they are showing to people who do not want or need to see them.
2. Direct Mail Is NOT About Selling Just One Product
Direct Mail is never about selling just one product blind. The whole purpose of Direct Mail is to break even (or make a small profit), add new customers to your email list, and then follow up with other products generating more profits on the back end… hence the Combined Customer Lifetime Value figures in those previous images.
This is ‘funnel marketing’ using Direct Mail as the way to get people into the top of the funnel. Once the people are in the funnel, you make more money with other product sales which reduces the cost of the mailing.
You should never expect to simply sell one product with Direct Mail.
Yes, initially you may be selling only one product if you only have one, but you will add the names of those buyers to a ‘buyers’ list to which you will promote other products later.
You either promote affiliate products for a commission – the product you select for this needs to be related to the one they initially bought, or you create other products of your own specifically to sell to your new list.
3. Direct Mail Is NOT As Slow As People Think… It’s Fast, Reliable, and Distraction Free!
There are many different ways to market your products online, but they are not always as cost-effective as you would like to think. Plus, they can be incredibly confusing and if you are using other people to help, they can be very slow to implement.
Yes, you can get a lot of traffic from Joint Venture partners, but you have to pay them half the profits and you need to spend time building those relationships. It could take weeks, possibly months to build good relationships with future Joint Venture partners.
With Direct Mail your marketing message can be in the hands of potential customers within a week.
The whole process is quick and easy.
You contact a list broker (online), find the right lists for you, purchase the data you need (name and address etc), have your marketing message put into an envelope, and have it sent out in the mail.
Job Done!
The mail can be in people’s hands in a few short days meaning that they can be on your website looking at your product… and you can be earning money through sales.
The final point you need to consider is that with Direct Mail, when the mailing lands and people open the envelope there is nothing else to distract your potential customer.
They have the sales letter in their hands and they can read it without having anything else flashing in their face trying to grab their attention like you do when looking at stuff online.
The recipient can sit themselves down in a comfy chair, put their feet up and read your sales letter.
Feeling at ease and being comfortable makes people more receptive to your message.
PLEASE NOTE/IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION…
Direct Mail may be an old-school method of marketing your products, but that doesn’t mean that you yourself have to resort to old-school working methods.
There is:
- No meetings with list brokers at their premises.
- No writing addresses on envelopes.
- No sticking of stamps on envelopes.
- No stuffing sales letters into envelopes.
- No taking the envelopes to the postal office.
Everything you need to do is done online from the comfort of your own home.
The offline work is done by other people who employ super-fast sophisticated machinery like the one seen in the picture below. Here you can see just how quickly the envelopes for one of our recent campaigns were stamped and addressed. We never lifted a single finger!
You source the lists of people online, you email your requirements to specific companies who do the work for you; you then wait for the people to begin visiting your online sales pages.
I often refer to this as the Triple O System.
Online -> Offline -> Online.
All very simple… and incredibly profitable!
If you would like to discover more about this fantastic way of driving people into the top of your marketing funnel, discover more here:
