Global spending on digital ads is reaching $100 billion.
Almost very entrepreneur, business and corporation aspires to spend dollars on social media marketing, because they “think” it’s the only way.
And yet the classic method of handwritten direct mail beats social media marketing when it comes to key metrics like response rate and ROI.
Shocking, right?
I am just getting started.
Here are all the reasons why you should prefer handwritten direct mail over social media marketing.
1. Response Rate
Direct mail beats social media when it comes to response rates by huge margins.
In 2016, direct mail customer response rate jumped by a whopping 43%, according to The Data & Marketing Association.
Overall, response rate of direct mail stands at over 5%, while response rate for social media campaigns is just under 1%.
The reason of the spectacular response rates for direct mail is simple: we are wired to feel excited and pay attention to the stuff we receive in our mail box.
On social media our default mode to ads is NO.
In direct mail, we are curious enough to at least open the mail piece once. According to a study, 80% people scan or open the direct mail piece they got in their inbox at least once.
2. Targeting
Facebook and other social media platforms don’t allow specific, area-level targeting. For example, at Facebook you can only select for audience at the level of cities. What if I want to target audience in a specific neighborhood or street?
Direct mail offers tons of targeting options. Take USPS direct mail targeting tool as an example. You can narrow down your audience to the level of street, and add filters like number of residents, average age range, average household size, and average household income of that zone.
With direct mail you can always make every dollar of your campaign count because you can research the market and deliver the mail pieces with total control. On social media, it’s all luck.
3. Personalization
People are losing trust in what they see online as ads.
Data shows that an average person is exposed to over 4,000 per day on social media and other digital platforms.
There is no personalization on social media ads since the target is to get the maximum number of eyes on something that is designed for everyone.
Result: Users have stopped paying attention to social media ads.
Direct mail is the solution, as consumers still prefer it.
Over 73% consumers say they prefer to get advertising pieces via direct mail. Over 57% people said receiving direct mail makes them feel valued.
4. Certainty of Reach
You can’t rely on social media as it’s fickle and heavily dependent on user trends, behaviors and demographics.
Consider this: In just about a year, over 20% of Facebook users aged 13 – 17 in the U.S left the platform because they got bored.
6 out of 10 seniors in the U.S. don’t have a smartphone.
Internet connectivity in many neighborhoods remains limited.
On the other hand, direct mail reaches everyone. There are no barriers or uncertainty about its reach.
In 2016, just when marketers were starting to spend billions on Facebook video ads, the social media company admitted that it has made an error in reporting, wrongly inflating the results of video ads.
Companies were furious. But nothing could be done. Billions of dollars in ads spending were lost. Facebook’s organic reach has consistently dipped. That means the only way to stand out on Facebook and get attention of your fans is to boost post by giving Facebook a lot of dollars.
All of these things show that in social media marketing you don’t have the reins of your campaign in your hand.
In direct mail marketing, there is no question of whether your posts will “reach” the targeted audience or not. The reach is ensured to be 100%.
With the reach and open rate ensured, it all depends on how you execute your campaign. If done correctly, handwritten direct mail could be a game changer for your business.
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