You’re looking for a new financial services provider. You go to a website and fill out a form to get more information and get an email right away – great! Then, a couple of days later, you get a printer mailer, personalized with your name and tailored to exactly what you were inquiring about.
You’re a family comparing options for your college-bound student. You click on a link online and start inputting your information for an upcoming tour, but you get pulled away and don’t follow through on scheduling. A few days later, a personalized postcard arrives with a QR code you can scan to immediately finish scheduling.
You’re part of the marketing and sales team for a top manufacturing company, attending tradeshows to make potential connections. Ahead of your arrival at each event, you send postcards to leads in your database who are geographically nearby, inviting them to stop by and visit your booth.
All these stories prove one truth: in marketing, as in most things, timing is everything.
If a direct mail piece arrives too soon or too late, it may get briefly looked at, then tossed aside and forgotten. But if it arrives at exactly the right moment, clearly connected to an action the customer has taken on their own, it can increase engagement, build a more personal connection, and improve ROI.
Finding that moment is the key to effective triggered direct mailings.
How Triggered Direct Mail Works
Just like the name suggests, triggered direct mail campaigns use a previous action on the customer’s part as a “trigger” to send a specific, related mailing. By investing in reaching your customers when they’re already showing interest in your brand, it allows you to deliver relevant, tailored content just when it is most likely to lead to action. Triggers might include:
- Abandoning an online shopping cart
- Visiting a website or specific webpage
- Requesting information
- Scanning a QR code
- Reaching an anniversary or milestone
- Interacting at a conference or tradeshow
- Signing up for a newsletter
- Nearing a subscription renewal date
Allied’s triggered direct mail services integrate seamlessly with your existing CRM to make the process as smooth and automatic as possible. Using an API or middleware connection, your CRM can send details of a pre-determined trigger to Allied, and we’ll generate a personalized template based on those directions.
From there, each project will be proofed, printed, and mailed, ensuring the right messages reach audiences at exactly the right time. Plus, you’ll be able to track results with delivery and engagement data, helping hone your approach for future campaigns.
Why Choose Triggered Direct Mail?
Think about the moment you pick up your mail and see an interesting envelope or postcard. It’s a lot more fun than opening an email, right? That tangible sense of anticipation has kept direct mail at the top of the marketing stack for decades.
Even though printed direct mail might seem old-fashioned in today’s digital-first age, it’s one of the most powerful tools in your marketing toolbox – still. A recent MIT study quantified some of the benefits of using direct mail:
- For every 1% increase in mailers sent out, there was a nearly equivalent increase in actual sales.
- Revenue actually increased by about 1.27% per 1% mail volume increase.
- Direct mail had the lowest per-customer acquisition cost and the highest average purchase value.
- Of all marketing methods, direct mail delivered the highest ROAS (55%).
- 80% of customers are more likely to look into a brand (online or in-store) after receiving a print mail piece.
- 70% of customers say direct mail is useful for purchasing decisions (in contrast with just 50% who say the same about digital ads).
On top of these benefits, adding a “trigger” component to direct mail makes it feel more personal and directly relevant to an individual customer’s wants and needs (rather than a generic message sent to everyone). One McKinsey study found that 80% of customers want customization from the brands they interact with, and that personalization can lead to a measurable increase in key metrics like sales, engagement, and customer retention.
When you send a tailored message connected to a choice the customer has already made, you’re telling them that your brand cares enough to pay attention and connect with them on a more personal level. And that, more than anything, can drive the results you’re looking for.
Want to create a triggered direct mail campaign to boost your brand? Contact Allied to discuss how our solutions can deliver for you!