March 16, 2020
6 Benefits of Shared Direct Mail Opportunities
How does shared mail differ from standard direct mail offerings? Who should you choose to advertise with? Are there benefits associated with hiring out the mailing process to a third party marketing service? Read on for more.
Shared Mail Versus Direct Mail
Believe it or not, shared mail is a facet of direct mail. Almost all shared mail is direct mail, but not all direct mail is shared mail. However, with shared mailings, your mail pieces are sent in a package where you can split the cost with other businesses. What makes this unique? As we alluded to above, shared mail serves to lower the total cost of small business marketing. This helps to increase return on investment for your advertising. However, one thing that remains the same is the ability to target specific sets of consumers. The USPS’ Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) program makes it simple for direct mailing businesses to target based on many factors. Opportunities to reach your target market include:- Saturation of wrap zones, which are sets of zip codes in an area.
- Targeting of specific zip codes in an area.
- Splitting of a zip code based on demographics, income levels, property values, and more.
- Targeting specific carrier routes (groups of addresses that carriers deliver to in a day).
- Messaging targeted as focused as a household-level if needed.
The Benefits Of Shared Direct Mail
There are many benefits associated with shared direct mail marketing campaigns for small businesses. They are one of the most cost-effective marketing options available for companies. Despite this, they offer reliable marketing coverage across local geographic areas. In addition, the targeting opportunities are vast, focusing on geographic regions and homeowner demographics. Many shared mail advertising services provide all-inclusive pricing that covers design, development, printing, and mailing. Although it's a more old-school approach, this effective local option helps businesses obtain more substantial name recognition. Plus, it allows for collaboration with other local businesses. If you have a business where your customers are local, direct mail is a fantastic solution to increase sales.Cost-Effective Mailing Option
Direct mail is cost-effective, period. Shared mail, by nature, is even more cost-effective. Businesses can quickly and effectively develop eye-appealing and colorful graphics just as they would with digital campaigns. However, from there, shared mail services can take these digital images and turn them into thousands of printed copies. With the drop in print media in the past ten years, the cost of rapid-fire printing is cheaper than ever. In addition, mailing services can mail smaller quantities as a test of direct mail viability in specific areas. Digitally, this is known as split-testing or A/B testing. Once a business has determined the success of their mailing campaigns, they can increase volume in the next run. This ensures subsequent mailings have a higher rate of success.Impressive Marketing Coverage Across Geographic Areas
If you’re looking to canvas an entire geographic area, shared mail and direct mail are by far the best options. While advertising opportunities such as billboards are still effective, nothing beats putting your brand right at consumers’ doors. With the massive geographic targeting options available with direct mailing, the possibilities are truly endless. From individual mailing routes to entire cities, direct mail provides opportunities to reach anyone and everyone. There's no limit to benefitted service industries as well. Everything from house cleaning to car dealerships to restaurants and beyond can experience a boost in revenues.
Surprising Targeting Based On A Variety Of Demographics
Targeting your advertisements in the digital marketing space is complex. However, things such as geo-targeting and geofencing, they're available by default with direct mail marketing and shared mail. Saturation mailing lists will target every single residential and commercial address in a carrier route. As a result, you can select specific carrier routes to exclude or include based on a variety of factors. You can eliminate PO boxes, seasonal homes, businesses, drop addresses, and more with shared mail. In addition, you can filter carrier routes based on demographics including:- Average household age
- Population density of an area
- The net worth of households
- Average home value on a route
- Number of children
- Whether the home is owned or rented
- Multi-family units or single family
- The average level of education
Most Shared Direct Mail Services Offer All-Inclusive Pricing
There are many things involved with the process of developing a shared mail flyer, postcard, or insert. First, you need to develop your design. Once you do this, you need to research the most effective combinations of mailing routes for your message. After this, you should find other local businesses that show an interest in advertising on that same route. When you finally have enough local business interests, you must gather their payments and obtain their graphics. Then, it’s off to the print shop, where thousands of copies of these mailers are printed. Once this is complete, to utilize the USPS EDDM program, these mailers need to be boxed into sets of 50. The boxes must be labeled appropriately and then trucked to the relevant post office. Or, you could hire a dedicated shared direct mail service to take care of things from start to finish for you. After all, you’ve got a business to run. As a result of the numerous steps involved, many shared mail services offer all-inclusive pricing for companies.An Old-School, Effective Marketing Approach
“Snail mail” may be considered old school; however, it still works wonderfully for many businesses. But here in the digital age, how can this be? In the end, everything comes down to how we're wired. We process material things far more efficiently than digital things. Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to read an actual book than an ebook on a tablet? Mail works the same. Per researcher and writer Roger Dooly, shared mail is simpler to process mentally. It also utilizes less cognitive effort than digital alternatives. Typically, physical media will result in stronger emotional responses compared to digital media. It can also can lead to significantly improved recall, as well as a far more memorable overall experience. Compare this to words and images on a screen, which are far more likely just to be skimmed, then forgotten.