Today’s marketers are under pressure to do more with less. Many find the answer in marketing automation, which can increase sales productivity by 14.5% and reduce marketing overhead by 12.2%, according to recent data from marketing firm Invesp. Additionally, marketers who use marketing automation platforms experience as much as a 77% lift in conversions. Marketing automation is also the key to enabling marketing personalization strategies, which are highly effective in driving sales.
While most marketing automation tactics use online channels, you can also automate direct mail to deliver a personalized omnichannel customer experience that will help you stand out and stay top of mind. Here’s what you should know about incorporating marketing automation into your direct mail campaigns — and how to optimize your ROI.
Success Elements of an Automated Direct Mail Campaign
Of course, marketing automation isn’t a magic bullet. Here are some key elements of a successful direct mail automation campaign:
- Audience segmentation: Leverage the power of personalization at scale by segmenting your mailing list based on attributes such as age, household income, gender, location, past purchases, interests and more to increase the relevance of your communications.
- Targeted content and offers: Use automation technologies to send the right content to the right audience at the right time. For example, you can promote location-specific discounts to recipients in the area. You can also send the most timely content to nudge prospects down your sales funnel or nurture customer relationships (e.g., a birthday card).
- Drip campaigns: Automate a series of direct mail pieces to nurture customer relationships and accelerate prospects down the sales funnel. Drip campaigns help you build trust and credibility with your audience while staying top of mind by regularly showing up in their mailbox.
- Trigger-based mailing: Program mail pieces to be sent out automatically based on a recipient’s interactions with your brand to deliver the most timely offer. For example, you can automate direct mail to promote a discount for a specific product when registered users leave it in their carts.
- Omnichannel experience: Automate direct mail to bridge the online and offline brand experience. For instance, you can include unique QR codes in your direct mail pieces to promote a personalized offer or track how the recipients interact with your brand across channels to facilitate the customer journey.
Key Marketing Automation Technologies
To maximize the power of marketing automation, you need to use the right tools and technologies.
A Central Storefront
Store all your recipients’ information in a centralized database that connects to your marketing automation platforms. This will enable you to coordinate your direct mail campaigns with other channels in real time to send the most relevant information to each recipient.
Leverage web-to-print software to streamline the internal process and increase operational cost efficiency. Your team can customize marketing materials with the latest information and send out direct mail campaigns on time with automation technologies.
PURLs
Use personalized URLs (PURLs) on your direct mail pieces to make it easy for recipients to respond to your offer online. Automation technologies help you deliver personalized content to drive customer engagement that will live beyond the direct mail campaign.
Geolocation and Mapping
Use variable map printing technology and geolocation software to automate the inclusion of recipient-specific maps in your mailer. This can help position your business as part of the community and make it easy for prospects and customers to find your store.
Data Analytics
Use data analytics to test layouts and messaging on a consistent basis. Marketing automation combined with data analytics can help you gain insights into your audience and make incremental improvements to your design and copy to increase response rates and ROI.
‘Set It and Forget It’ With Direct Mail Automation
Whether you’re running acquisition campaigns, retention campaigns or mandated mailings, automation technologies help you streamline the process and deliver your campaigns to the right people at the right time to increase response rates and drive conversions.
Here at United Mail, we help you “set it and forget it” when it comes to your marketing campaigns. We offer the latest direct mail automation technologies to support your audience segmentation and personalization strategy so you can stay top of mind with the most appropriate communications. Our team of trusted experts can take care of everything from setting up your database to designing your direct mail piece so you can focus on growing your business. Learn more about our direct mail services and get in touch to see how we can help you increase response rates and ROI.
