A Guide to Programmatic Direct Mail

Are you familiar with the direct mail marketing strategy? Who isn’t? It’s one of the traditional marketing techniques, which involves sending personalized flyers, letters, and postcards to consumers by typing their names.

Nowadays, this technique is upgraded to programmatic direct mail owing to the assistance of digital technology. The letters and flyers send to prospects not only address them by their names but also feature the products they’ve previously browsed on the site of the sender.

We hope the following guide introduces you to this marketing technique.

How does it work?

Programmatic direct mail combines the power of digital technology and the benefits of direct mail for the purpose of converting more prospects into customers and improving their response. By using an automated system, businesses can mail some of their site visitors. Nevertheless, the flyers and postcards you send should have something to do with the online browsing habits and behavior of users.

Let’s assume a user visited your website, added an item to the shopping cart but failed to go through with the transaction. In such a scenario, the system records this data and generates the address of the visitor based on its IP address. Afterward, your company is supposed to send coupons, flyers, promo deals, or postcards to encourage the user to buy the item he/she added to the shopping cart before. Read here about the psychology of coupons.

How does it differ from the traditional approach?

Programmatic direct mail differs both from digital marketing and the traditional mailing approach. When it comes to digital marketing, a myriad of advertisers are struggling to win the attention of consumers. Therefore, instead of placing the focus on being better than your competitors, you can attract consumers in real-time by getting in touch with them both online and through flyers and postcards. 

As far as traditional mail is concerned, it’s usually delivered to audiences by using a customer data list or by purchasing a target audience list. In both cases, the results aren’t completely satisfying, as not all people on the list have previously interacted with your business. Although many individuals are still fond of the traditional approach, delivery should be performed to valuable prospects who were close to making a purchase. 

Web-powered direct mail is also worth mentioning, as it’s considered the first channel to make a connection between the online and offline worlds of marketing. With this approach, marketers can use browsing data to gain a better understanding of the intent of consumers and later use this information to personalize the content sent to their home addresses. 

As mentioned before, direct mail isn’t about winning the attention of prospects over competitors but relying on their intentions to create personalized offers and deliver them to their addresses within forty-eight hours. The importance of programmatic direct mail as a marketing technique lies in offline retargeting. Nevertheless, not every visitor should receive such offers, only those who meet the conditions and make good prospects. 

How to use it to your advantage?

The term programmatic means doing things by following a method. Therefore, programmatic direct mail involves more than simply sending personalized letters to random individuals and encouraging them to purchase your products. It’s supposed to follow a strategy in order to use it to your advantage. 

The inceptive step of the strategy is making your sales pitch irresistible and inviting. The flyers you send customers should feature discount codes and vivid images. Discount codes will help them buy the products at budget-friendly prices. Another way to influence their shopping behavior is by offering free shipping and promotional deals. 

Your customers deserve a rewarding shopping experience, as individuals are expected to appreciate the personal connection. Keep in mind that generic flyers aren’t likely to yield the desired results, given all people have specific preferences. Therefore, your promos and deals should be tailored to fit the needs of the prospect you’re targeting. Only in this way, your target audience would consider your offers worthy. 

The ultimate step of using this marketing technique to your advantage is considering the privacy and security of your customers. Modern technology is definitely helpful in allowing businesses to discover the desires of web users. Nevertheless, the information you receive should be used prudently in order not to compromise your consumers’ privacy. See this link, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/6-ways-to-protect-customer-data_b_59cd51f9e4b04575111f3963, for some tips on protecting customer data.

For example, the browsing habits of a site visitor will inform you about his/her interest in a particular product. However, you aren’t advised to deliver this item to his/her address as a gift in an attempt to earn its loyalty. On the contrary, this person might interpret this act as a violation of its privacy. 

Final word

This strategy has proven effective, personal, and appealing to prospects.

Why not use it?