The Best Direct Mail Flyers

If you are looking for a simple and cost-effective way to expand your marketing campaigns, look no further than direct mail flyers.

Direct mail flyers present a simple, cost-effective way to get your offer in front of your prospects and customers while supplementing your campaigns through other channels. While direct mail is seen by many as a traditional channel, causing it to be overlooked by marketing departments with a digital focus, the truth is that direct mail can be an effective addition to any team looking for a complete multi-channel approach. 

The misconception is that direct mail campaigns live in a bubble, disconnected from your broader marketing strategies. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth. 

Modern direct mail marketing campaigns can integrate directly with your digital campaigns, and connect your recipients and the way that they engage with your campaign directly to your customer relationship management platform.

Direct mail flyers provide a visual, tangible asset that your recipients are more likely to notice, act on, and hold onto. Compare that to a digital campaign where a prospect may view your advertisement or landing page one time. It is easy to see how it may be difficult to stay top-of-mind. If you have one chance to capture a prospect’s attention, you want to engage them in a way that will stick. 

In this article, we will cover the benefits of direct mail flyers and direct mail campaigns in general, while also examining how direct mail flyers can be used in creative ways to supplement existing marketing campaigns, both traditional and digital.

What Does It Cost To Mail 1,000 Flyers

Cost per thousand, or CPM is a common way that advertising is measured. It essentially boils down a price of an advertisement to a per unit cost for 1,000 “impressions”.

Little know fact – the “M” in CPM stands for “mille”. Mille is Latin for thousands.

To calculate direct mail flyer cost per 1000, take the total cost of the campaign & divide it by 1,000.

Let’s take a sample 10,000 piece Postalytics 4 x 6 postcard campaign, using the Pro Plan:

Costs: Printing, Paper, Postage, Tracking = $.53 per flyer or $5,300 total. Pro Plan Subscription = $399. (See Postalytics Pricing Plans for more info). Mailing List (we can help you acquire one) = $300.

Total cost = $5,999.00. Cost per 1000 of a direct mail campaign (Postalytics) = $5,999.00/1,000 or $5.99

Direct mail flyer cost per 1000 is used to compare direct mail costs to costs of other media. For example:

• Cable TV Cost Per 1000 – $23.00
• LinkedIn Ad Cost Per 1000 – $8.39
• Postalytics Direct Mail Flyer Cost Per 1000 – $5.99

The Benefits of Direct Mail Flyers

There are many benefits to integrating direct mail marketing campaigns with your existing campaigns. Direct mail flyers are one of the most popular formats used on the channel. 

Some of the benefits of using direct mail flyers as you work toward a full multi-channel approach include:

Automation

In the old days, direct mail campaigns were “standalone” efforts, with no data or API connection to any other marketing channels like email or digital marketing.

Today, with modern direct mail management software, you can reliably integrate your direct mail campaigns, and even fully automate them in the middle of existing marketing sequences. Direct mail then enhances digital marketing efforts, by providing a physical “touchpoint” to complement search, retargeting or email campaigns.

For instance, if you owned an e-commerce store, you could automate the sending of thank you cards to new customers and even include a discount code to encourage future purchases. Another interesting e-commerce use case would be to automate the sending of personalized discounts and coupon codes for long-time customers that have hit significant spending milestones with your company.

Triggered direct mail campaigns are campaigns that are launched after a specific requirement is met. Using our previous example, you could launch a triggered direct mail campaign after a customer makes a purchase. Another example might be for a direct mail campaign to start after an email sequence has been delivered, with no purchase being made by the customer.

When you choose to incorporate direct mail automation, you can schedule triggered drip direct mail campaigns that are sent based on a specific requirement and may include multi-step direct mail sequences. 

Viewing direct mail as a channel that would be disconnected from your other marketing channels would be a mistake. It doesn’t have to be. Modern direct mail marketing campaigns are most effective when they are supplementing other activities and delivering a new way to connect with customers that you already have an existing relationship with.

A Long-Term Asset

Typically companies that send flyers through direct mail are advertising a specific offer or product. Any flyer that you have designed could potentially be used within your business for years to come, so long as your product or offer does not substantially change. In many cases, the campaigns that are working well for your company today would still be effective two, three, or five years down the road. 

Additionally, many companies make the mistake of seeing a flyer as a bottom of the funnel asset. As if customers are supposed to receive the flyer, and immediately make a purchase. 

However, with all of the integrations offered by Postalytics, you can find creative uses for direct mail flyers throughout the funnel. Yes, you could attempt to make a direct sale from the flyer. You could also deliver critical information to your audience that would help them to learn more about your product or company. Or, you could provide product specs and other materials directly on the flyer. Direct mail is at its most effective when it is viewed as a channel that is appropriate throughout the entirety of the funnel. 

A direct mail flyer can be an excellent long-term asset that can be reused and recalibrated for other channels if need be. It could potentially double as a handout for conventions and in-person events, or be reformatted into other formats — be it direct mail postcards or digital use cases.

Built in tracking of direct mail flyers

Through the use of intelligent mail barcodes for delivery tracking personalized URLs (pURLS) for response tracking,  you can track how your recipients engage with your direct mail collateral. For instance, you could deliver a direct mail flyer that invites recipients to visit your website to claim a discount on a popular item. 

Through the personalized URL, which is different for every recipient that receives your campaign and typically includes the recipient’s name, you can see exactly when each recipient visits the URL included on the flyer, and what actions they take once they get there.

This is incredibly powerful and gives you a level of oversight that was never possible with direct mail campaigns in previous decades. It’s a perfect example of just how far the medium has come with technology assistance.

Additionally, you can use those actions to trigger other marketing activities within the marketing automation software that you are already using.

Direct mail flyers integrated with CRM

Modern direct mail Management systems allow you to integrate your direct mail campaigns directly with many of the popular marketing automation and CRM software solutions that are popular today. For example, Postalytics directly integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, and other popular marketing automation software.

While direct mail has traditionally been an effective marketing channel on its own, being able to integrate it with digital channels such as email, PPC, and social media — increases its effectiveness. Direct mail has a place throughout the sales funnel and in nearly any industry.

A More Tangible Medium

Direct mail delivers a more tactile, tangible medium that makes your campaigns more memorable for your recipients.  Your recipients are also much more likely to hang on to collateral that they receive through direct mail. In fact, many direct mail pieces are designed to be held onto, either through the delivery of coupons or magnets that you can place on your fridge. Direct mail flyers that can find the balance between being promotional and informational have a much higher chance of facilitating action among recipients. 

Direct Mail Flyer Personalization

Direct mail personalization has never been easier. Using Postalytics and other popular direct mail management software, you can directly inject customer data into your direct mail collateral, so that your recipients feel as if each piece was delivered specially for them.  

Commonly, companies will include the recipient’s name, but with Postalytics’ integrations with your CRM software, you can inject any piece of data that you collect on to your customers. Common examples include job titles, geographic information, interest, purchasing history, or information about previous engagements with your brand. 

Effective Across Demographics

The Assumption among many marketers is that direct mail is a channel that is more effective with older demographics than it is with younger demographics. It is true to an extent, direct mail marketing tends to perform very well with older demographics. Advertising cards, catalogs, or flyers have made 31% of baby boomers purchase a service or product. 

However, direct mail has shown to Be an Effective channel for engaging with prospects and customers in any age group. In fact, a 2018 report from The Office of the Inspector General titled “Millenials and the Mail” showed that nearly half of millennials pick up their mail at least six days a week. 

Here are a few more statistics from that report that show how effective direct mail can be as a medium for young audiences as well as old:

• 75% of Millennials say that receiving direct mail from friends and family makes them feel special.
• More than 65% of Millennials said that receiving coupons for restaurants and Retail businesses with something that they liked.
• 90% of millennials think direct mail advertising is reliable.

The idea that direct mail is less effective with younger generations is persistent throughout the marketing industry, and forward-thinking brands that understand that it is not true can capitalize on this misconception. 

Because many marketing departments have shifted their budget or digital advertising in marketing, direct mail has become a less crowded space in most industries. Sending direct mail campaigns can help you to stand out from the crowd and endear yourself to prospects and customers — young and old. 

Positive ROI

The average ROI of direct mail campaigns is higher than other channels. It is one of the oldest and most tested forms of advertising. Compare the response rates to direct mail advertising campaigns to those of email in a 2016 report from the DMA:  

A Multi-Channel Approach

A multi-channel approach is critical for any marketing team. If you do not embrace multiple interconnected channels, you can be certain that your competitors are. In modern marketing, a healthy distribution between traditional and digital marketing channels can be a huge boon that helps you to meet your customers where they are most comfortable.

30% higher lifetime customer values are attributed to consumers shopping across multiple channels. Direct mail can be a great way to break the monotony of a digital-only campaign, re-engage with disengaged prospects, and recapture their attention.

How Postalytics Makes Delivering Effective Direct Mail Flyers Easy

Postalytics is the perfect tool for adding direct mail as a channel to your existing digital marketing campaigns. The platform simplifies the process of creating professionally-designed direct-mail collateral, makes shipping incredibly easy and hands-off and allows you to integrate your direct mail campaigns with your existing CRM and digital campaigns.

Let’s take a closer look at how Postalytics can help in these key areas.

Templates

One of the biggest costs of running any direct mail campaign is the price of having your collateral professionally-designed. Engaging with a graphic designer that has extensive experience in direct mail can be very expensive, costing up to multiple thousand dollars per campaign. Postalytics helps to mitigate these costs.

Within Postalytics,  there are many professionally designed templates available, that you can use as a starting point for your direct mail collateral. These templates can be edited directly inside of Postalytics, giving you complete control over how your campaign looks and feels.

You can edit the copywriting directly on top of the existing design template, import images, and make changes to the placement of specific elements of your design. Using Postalytics professionally-designed direct mail templates, you can eliminate the costs associated with graphic design for your campaigns.

Integrations with Popular CRMs

While direct mail is a worthwhile channel on its own, the ROI delivered by direct mail campaigns really goes through the roof when you are able to integrate it into existing digital and traditional campaigns. Postalytics directly integrates with many of the popular CRM in marketing automation systems on the market today including HubSpot, Salesforce, Marketo, and many more.

This means that when your customers engage with your direct mail campaigns, your customer profiles inside of your CRM will be automatically updated with engagement information. You can also use any data stored within your CRM to personalize your direct mail campaigns. 

Tracking direct mail flyer delivery and response

Postalytics has built in delivery and response tracking tools, so you can determine who’s received their mail and when, and who responds online. No more guessing, you can use free tools to zero in on the deliverability of your list and the quality of your offer!

Direct mail flyers done for you – just press send

One of the biggest hurdles that keeps many companies from investing in direct mail marketing is the idea that they will have to manage the packaging and shipping on their own as well, or at least engage with a vendor to do it for them.

Using Postalytics, you just set up the campaign within the system, and Postalytics will handle the rest. Your campaign will be delivered in an appropriate envelope and shipped directly to your prospects, through a completely hands-off experience. This allows companies to quickly add direct mail campaigns without all of the extra manual work that would typically bog them down and keeps companies from sincerely adopting the channel. 

5 tips for effective direct mail flyers

As you look at integrating direct mail flyers into your current campaigns, here are some simple tips that you can follow to ensure that your flier is as effective as possible.

• Ensure that your flyers are eye-catching. Like any other advertising channel, it is important that you stand out from the competition. Make sure that any flyer that you sent through direct mail stands out, and is eye-catching. This can be done through attention-grabbing colors, an irresistible headline,  or interesting images.
• Give your recipients a reason to hold onto the flyer.  Direct mail flyers have the benefit of allowing you to deliver something more tangible than you would through digital advertising. Delivering critical information that is date-specific, gives your recipients a reason to hold on to your flyer in the long-term, and helps to keep your offer top-of-mind.
• Be creative and find uses for your flyers throughout the funnel. It is important to remember that a direct mail flyer doesn’t have to necessarily be focused on sales. You can also deliver nurturing materials through direct mail as well and in an effort to break up the monotony of digital and other traditional marketing campaigns.
• Make sure your offer is irresistible.  Ultimately the success of your direct mail campaign comes down to your offer. If your offer is not enticing enough, you’re never going to see a positive ROI. So before you send that direct mail campaign, make sure that you are truly delivering an irresistible offer that your audience will jump at.
• Personalize the flyer. Direct mail is a personal platform. Make sure that you are including personalization on your direct mail flyer, including the recipient’s name, so that they feel as if the piece of collateral was delivered specially for them.

Direct Mail Flyers Are Effective Throughout the Funnel

Using direct mail flyers to grab the attention of your prospects and customers can be an effective ROI-producing endeavor. Flyers allow you to capture the attention of disengage prospects, break up the monotony of your digital campaigns, and connect all of your efforts to your existing CRM or marketing automation software.

Postalytics makes it easier than ever for companies to launch new direct mail campaigns, triggered by customer actions, at any point in their sales funnel.

If you would like to launch new direct mail campaigns and send direct mail flyers to new prospects or existing customers, sign up for your free Postalytics trial today.