89% of marketers have increased or maintained their direct mail marketing budgets within the last year, according to a report by SeQuel Response. Yet, consumers’ physical mailboxes never seem to get too full and these ads maintain their effectiveness. (70% of marketers even say direct mail ads’ performance has improved!) But that doesn’t mean your client can slack off when it comes to coming up with fresh direct mail ideas for their next campaign.

Leading Edge Direct Mail Ideas to Boost Campaign ROI

What to Use Direct Mail Ads for

The first step in brainstorming direct mail ideas is identifying what your client’s goal for them is. For inspiration, here’s how other brands are using these ads:

To acquire new customers: 43% of marketers use direct mail (and it’s the top ad medium for this category! It’s even higher than social media)
Lead remarketing: 40%
Lead generation: 38%
To generate brand awareness: 34%
To retain current customers: 27%

Got a goal in mind? Excellent. On to the next step!

Make Their Strategy Omnichannel

Direct mail does well at getting consumers’ attention, but there’s not much they can do with the piece of mail itself. There needs to be a call to action on the ad to get recipients to take the next step, and that step is usually digital.

Adding a QR code or URL that takes recipients to your client’s website or another area of your client’s campaign not only keeps the sales ball rolling, it can help sway less than willing higher ups in your client’s organization to consider giving your direct mail ideas a try. SeQuel points out that while direct mail ads are actually quite versatile, decision makers within your client’s organization may not see them that way. Decision makers may still associate these ads with mass mailings and generic promotions. Incorporating a digital aspect to each piece can help them see how personalized, integrated and flexible this ad type can be.

The best part: It works. 91% of marketers agree that integrating direct mail and digital channels has a positive impact on campaign performance.

Timing Your Client’s Ad Send

Just like any other type of media, too many direct mail ads can cause fatigue among consumers. SeQuel recommends not sending more than five direct mail ads to the same consumers annually:

5 pieces of mail annually: 46% of consumers agree that this is too many direct mail ads to receive in a single year
4–5 pieces of mail: 36%
2–3 pieces: 17%
1 piece: 2%

To make sure your client’s ads are still catching consumers’ attention in a positive way, limit their sends. This will also help ensure your clients have time to come up with fresh and relevant direct mail ideas for each send.

Types of Ads to Send

There are a lot of options when it comes to what to send to consumers in the mail. But what do they prefer to receive? SeQuel says consumers prefer:

Postcards: 73% of consumers prefer receiving this type of direct mail ad
Folded Multi-Panel Postcard: 71%
Catalogs/Magazines: 68%
Letters: 53%
Large/Envelopes: 31%

Tackling the Top Challenge of Direct Mail Ads

The main roadblock to successful direct mail ideas is a lack of audience targeting and limited access to customer data. But that doesn’t have to be the case for your client.

Simply look up their target audience’s profile on AudienceSCAN on AdMall by SalesFuel. There, you’ll find all the audience information you could want on them, such as:

Extensive demographic information (e.g. ages, incomes, pet ownership status, etc.)
How they feel about direct mail ads
What they plan on buying within the next year
How they want their purchases to make them feel
So much more

That information can help fuel your direct mail ideas for all your client’s future campaigns to come.

Photo by Mihai Moisa