Your direct mail campaigns are effective in generating results, but have they grown tired, or could they do more for your sales? Are you not even using direct mail in your marketing efforts? It may be time to take another approach to help your company close more business.

The latest in technology is able to provide unique ways to use direct mail that increases your sales compared to any ordinary direct mail strategy or any other marketing strategy at that. Better yet, we have a list of these unconventional ways so you can decide which one is best for you and get started on increasing your sales today.

1. Proximity Mailing

We all know the standard filtering of mail lists, such as mailing to certain demographics, certain ZIP Codes or geographic areas, but Proximity Mailing takes a step further in creating a targeted mailing campaign. By utilizing your ideal customer’s address, your business’s address, or even multiple addresses, you can mail to individuals who live in a certain radius surrounding that address.

Why it Works:

Proximity Mailing works because you are reaching a localized area. If you choose your ideal customer’s address, you will be reaching consumers who are similar to your customer and are likely to act in your favor. This is because people who live near each other typically have the same age home, same incomes, same interests, same geographic issues, and same needs. If you decide to mail to residents surrounding your business, you have a higher chance of increasing sales for the simple reason people like and know the importance of shopping local. So, what better way to let them know you are nearby then sending them a direct mail piece like a postcard?

2. Personalized Mailers

Have you ever received a direct mail piece from a company and the art was customized specifically for you? If not it’s because it’s not an incredibly common marketing strategy but if you have and wondered how that company created it or are intrigued that that is an option, it’s actually really easy and affordable! Thanks to modern digital printing technology like Variable Data Printing that is. With this out of the ordinary way to use direct mail, you can effortlessly create direct mail pieces that are customized for each of your recipients.

Why it Works:

Customized direct mail pieces work to increase sales because personalization has a different and positive impact on the recipient than generalized pieces do. “Hello resident” just does not resonate like “hello Janice” or “a deal just for you Kevin” does. When you implement personalization into your direct mail pieces, you create an experience that intrigues your audience to learn more.

3. Direct Mail Automation

Direct mail automation harnesses the customer data within your business’s marketing system—like your CRM—and creates dynamic and personalized mailers. This innovative way to use direct mail allows you to implement your direct mail pieces into your marketing platform so you can send a direct mail piece to your contacts along with and as easy as sending an automated email.

Why it Works:

Direct mail has proven to increase ROI and builds better customer relationships. That’s why automating your direct mail pieces so they can effortlessly be sent to your leads and customers works. Not to mention since your marketing automation platform can send out emails as well, you can send a direct mail piece like a postcard or brochure to follow up with an email and boost brand awareness.

4. Mailbox Retargeting

Mailbox Retargeting is an unconventional and highly comprehensive way to use direct mail to increase sales. It uses data to identify your anonymous website traffic and turns them into leads with mailable email and residential addresses.

Why it Works:

If you have a high traffic volume on your website or app, you’ve also got many people visiting, exploring your site, and even filling up their “cart” but leaving without ever buying, signing up or returning. When you retarget those individuals with well-timed emails and direct mail, you remind them why they visited your website in the first place while increasing the chances they will return and close business with you.

5. Propensity Mailing

Another uncommon and extremely successful way to use direct mail, is Propensity Mailing. This direct mail solution utilizes data selects to predict a consumer's behavior. These selects provide a better understanding into consumers likelihood to respond or buy your product or service so you can generate a list of only individuals who are likely to respond in your favor.

Why it Works:

Your direct mail marketing campaign will be way more successful if you only target those who are most likely interested or who are in market. If you mail to just a standard list of consumers, you're going to reach a good handful who just aren’t interested thus wasting your valuable time and money. That’s why Propensity Mailing works, it helps you reach the portion of individuals who matter most to your company.

6. Keyword Listening

Coming in at number 5, Keyword Listening is probably the most unconventional way to use direct mail right now. Although it’s not right for every business it does generate some crazy results for those who it is right for.

It works similar to Mailbox Retargeting in that is uses well-timed and relevant email and direct mail but instead of targeting website traffic, it targets web searchers. Keyword Listening leverages intent data to identify potential customers who haven’t engaged with you yet but have searched keywords relating to your business or your competitor.

Why it Works:

Let’s make up an example for this one. Pretend you own a mattress store. Imagine how many people type in their search engine relevant keywords like “new mattresses nearby” or “memory foam mattress” or how about even searched for your competitor but never engaged with you. Now what if you could send those individuals an email within minutes of searching and a postcard within a few days. They already searched for your industry keywords which means they are interested, that is why Keyword Listening works because it puts your brand in the front of consumers who are in-market before they buy somewhere else.

Now that you have learned about the 6 unconventional ways to use direct mail to increase your sales, you’re ready to choose the right one for your direct mail campaign and begin closing more business. If you would like to learn more, visit our advanced mailing page by clicking below or visit our data-driven solutions page here for a more data-driven approach. Our experts are always here to help answer any questions you may have and can help you get started on your direct mail campaign today.