Direct Mail & Email Working Together

I recently had lunch at a local eatery not far from my house. As I always do with small business owners I come across, I had a conversation with the owner of the deli if/how they were utilizing marketing. What I learned was actually quite impressive and encouraging.

This particular small business owner is already doing email marketing to customers. But they’re also actively collecting business cards from customers as a way to let them advertise their business and then adding the email addresses into the database. It’s a great way to keep re-engaging with customers to bring them back into their store.

But he then asked me about the best way to get email addresses from locals who have not previously come in and dropped off a business card. There are a few options here. The first one, is to contract with a list service and purchase email addresses of people in your specific locations or within certain zip codes. This can get expensive because you are renting the information and only get to use it once. If you go this route find a way to get the people to sign up for a newsletter or subscribe to your emails.

So here’s another idea that still involves a little investment of design, printing, postage and addresses. But it would most likely pay off with some healthy ROI if done right. Getting local addresses is often much easier and less expensive than getting accurate local email addresses. Plus email, as a first communication with a non-customer has very low and poor open rates, meaning they get deleted most often. Direct mail is a better way to get attention if you don’t have an existing relationship with the consumer.

The deli shop is already doing e-marketing, which means they already have a online presence. A very good first step. The strategy here is to use direct mail to get in front of locals and offer a nice incentive to drive traffic to the web site (and restaurant) so they can capture even more email addresses. On the direct mail piece, encourage people to go to the web site and register for great monthly – or weekly – deals for the deli offerings. Everyone wants a good deal. It is key to capture their info so you can use it again and again to repeat your marketing message and test different offers with potential customers.

Ultimately, this strategy accomplishes several things:

• Introduces new customers to you
• Enhances customer loyalty of current customers
• Drives traffic into your store
• Drives traffic to your Web site
• Allows you to capture even more email address

Keep in mind that direct mail has had, and is still very successful as a marketing tactic today. All of this leads to increased sales. Over time, you’ll be able to see a pretty healthy return on your initial direct mail investment if you capture more info.

How have you used direct mail and email marketing together? Tell us all about it here.

Share, bookmark or email this article

•