7 trends to watch in direct mail marketing

4. Loyalty program support and acceleration:

Name any customer loyalty program you belong to and I’ll bet direct mail is integral to that marketer’s relationship with you. Casinos are extremely savvy at using data from gamblers’ activities to reward customers and promote future visits. I get at least three targeted promotional mailings a month from the Horseshoe Casino here in Cleveland as part of my Total Rewards program membership – and I’m not even a high roller.

5. Power use of direct mail by selected market segments:

Nonprofit fundraisers, political marketers, and colleges are the direct mail power users, relying much more heavily on this channel than other marketers. I see no sign of this letting up, despite the proliferation of social media:

• A Cleveland nonprofit I work with says that direct mail continues to be their best fundraising channel;
• Political candidates and causes are already ramping up direct mail for fundraising and driving voter preference ahead of next year’s presidential campaign. I guarantee our mailboxes in Ohio and other swing stages will be deluged.
• Colleges are sending nearly every college-bound high school a huge volume and variety of direct mail. In fact, if you’re looking for samples of the most creative use of data in personalized direct marketing.

6. The vanishing reply form:

Reply cards and printed response forms are going missing from more and more direct mail packages, especially mailings for high-end products. In a previous Smart Marketing Strategy post, I wondered if this would be a trend and it is. For example, a promotion for Nordstrom’s Trunk Club has a web-only response mechanism. Look at the next five catalogs you get in the mail and see how few include printed reply forms, which used to be ubiquitous in direct mail catalogs.

7. Smaller quantities:

Every client we work with that’s using direct mail is reducing mail quantities through better targeting, especially our business-to-business clients. This is good news for our industry; people who consider direct mail “junk” are usually looking at mail they never should have received in the first place because it’s not relevant to their needs. It’s also a smart marketing strategy: Mailing fewer pieces gives you the budget flexibility to increase the quality of your promotion, which could produce higher response.

To read the original blog post, go here.

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