What’s your marketing strategy to reach an increasingly savvy consumer base that is becoming more and more prone to tuning you out?
In this fourth installment of “The 7 Direct Response Tactics You Need to Increase Sales” – we will focus on why email isn’t the only mail you should be sending.
Over the years, we’ve found that direct mail marketing has been highly successful for car dealers.
If you have not experienced a high level of success with direct mail, it comes down to falling short in one or more of these three categories:
- The data analytics and management
- The marketing strategy
- The campaign management
The simple, straightforward process of direct mail is ideal for the auto industry because of the brutally competitive nature of the industry.
Marketing in 2019 will continue to be dominated by digital campaigns – as it should be. There is no higher intent to purchase or shop than when a consumer is actively searching to buy what you sell.
But, given the saturation of car ads on the Internet, dealers will need to get more creative with their marketing campaigns and combining offline and online marketing will be critical.
No matter how “digital” your dealership has become, you have active and inactive customers and these customers are used to you emailing them!
If you want to boost your direct marketing results, you need to start combining direct mail with email. By providing a powerful marketing message in multiple different formats, the odds of getting the attention of your in-market audience are much higher.
We have tracked, tested and measured over 50,000 direct mail campaigns in the last fifteen years alone.
We have tracked, tested and measured over 50,000 direct mail campaigns in the last fifteen years alone. Our testing is very advanced and has the ability to isolate down to a single variable. This means we can compare two campaigns side by side.
We make sure everything is identical except for one small change (for example two different headlines, different lists, different envelopes, different offers, etc.).
Our data shows that, without exception, multi-channel campaigns ALWAYS perform best.
Use direct mail to resell, up-sell, and cross-sell your existing customers.
You want to make the relationship more intimate and show up in their mailboxes, not just in their inboxes or on their news feed.
(4 of 7) Use Direct Mail
The mailbox is not as competitive as it once was and it has the perfect open rate – 100 percent. Think about it. Five years ago, you would come back from the mailbox with a stack of mail six to twelve inches high. Today, there are times I get my mail and only get three to four pieces.
Talk about being easy to rise above the noise!
Now compare that with your email inbox. There are days I get six to seven hundred emails – in just one day.
I’m not proposing to stop emailing! Quite the opposite.
I’m proposing – I’m insisting – that you have them work together.
Below is an example of a direct mail piece that you should be able to work into your marketing strategy. It’s a sales letter we created for one of our Virtual Sales Event clients.
I can’t believe I’m showing you this! It was one of our first versions and, though it has been optimized significantly since first used, it still produced a huge response with both previous and conquest shoppers.
This strategy did not involve direct mail alone. It had an email strategy that was perfectly synced creating a very believable and credible story.
It’s a great example for everyone who is looking for ways to create offers that are different.
Yes, this offer is multi-channel. But, more importantly, it gives in-market previous customers and conquest prospects high perceived value in advance.
Give… Give…Give.
