In the digital age, email is often seen as reigning supreme in marketing campaigns. However, A-ZGovBIZ argues that snail mail is not dead. In fact, it might be that email and mail are not mutually exclusive marketing tools. Here’s why.
Data driven marketing campaigns are not always about email and telephone calls. There is a trend to move back to snail mail as email fatigue sets in and telemarketing results are – well questionable at the best of times. As the first medium of direct marketing, A-ZGovBIZ argues the humble letter still holds a respectable place. The challenge however has always been the prohibitive costs of postage.
If you went to the post office today and bought a stamp it would cost $0.60. On the other hand a letter mailed through a mailing house using the pre-sort discounts may cost as little as $0.48. Essentially, when barcoded mail is up to 20% cheaper than unbarcoded mail it is worth looking into.
Postage can be reduced by asking your mail house to pre-sort the mailing list before processing the letters. The mail house will match your list against the Postal Address File (PAF) – a database of 13 million delivery points (DPID’s) throughout Australia.
It is also worth setting up your own postage account with Australia Post rather than lodging on the mail house’s account. This way you will get to see exactly what the postage bill is and you have more control over your expenses.
New Trends in Email
We are all now familiar with the click benefits of email marketing. Not only is ROI high, your campaigns can be easily measured and the results of new leads recorded.
Harvard loves email. So much so they wrote the blog Why Email is King last year. It raises some important positives for marketing with email data, including: ‘On email the ad is much more. Because of electronic links, those who open your emails can do their own research: they can explore and see any of the thousands of products that you sell. They can see the colors and sizes. They can, and they do, read ratings and reviews’.
Email marketing is now a ‘choose your own adventure’, and can include media such as video, audio, links to ecommerce, social media and more.
Integrated Solution
Let’s not forget that email and mail are not mutually exclusive. Although your email campaign might be well-targeted, data-rich and tech-savvy, it is also one of the millions of messages clients and consumers are receiving online.
Letters and emails carry a different tone for your campaign. It might be the case that for official information, for example a conference brochure, something shiny and tangible is still the best avenue. Once a working relationship is established, you can then move to the more informal email.
Michael Bleakley
Michael Bleakley is a journalist, communicator and marketing professional of 25 years. His career began in his early 20’s publishing tech magazines for education. Michael’s career then moved into online and book publishing for a global business publisher, then finally into database publishing and marketing at A-ZGovBIZ.
