Think for a moment about the amount of mail you receive in your mailbox. Is it a lot?
Back before there was an internet, people used to be inundated with mail. Why? Because it was the most targeted way of reaching people. For that reason, many organizations – for profit and nonprofit – sent offers, letters, postcards, and other items through the mail.
It used to be a chore, sorting through the mail to see what needed to be opened first (typically bills), what was interesting, what wasn’t. Studies indicate that, even a few years ago, many people preferred to get their invoices by mail. Now, businesses have moved to sending invoices online so there’s very little that gets sent through the mail. And it’s expensive to do a mailing for a business, because it involves creating the mailpiece, printing it, and sending it (using postage).
So why do it?
Now that the U.S. is almost fully digitized, why even think about snail mail? Because now it’s the least crowded “channel” to reach your prospects and clients.
Think about how much mail YOU receive. It isn’t much, is it? And if you receive invoices in the mail (still), those are opened, to be sure that payments are made. So getting mail is now not a chore. It can be interesting and there’s not so much that you can’t look at it when you get it from the mailbox. Even millennials enjoy getting items in the regular mail – it’s a treat for them!
Since so much communication is now done digitally, using “old fashioned snail mail” can be a highly effective way to reach your prospects and customers. And when compared with email, it can, in some instances, be far more effective. Here are just a couple of ways to use regular mail and be impactful with your marketing communication:
- Be personalized in your mailing – that is, use first names (as you would for an email) and, if possible, merge in other personalized information. This could be where someone lives, how long they’ve been a customer or member of your organization, and what they’ve purchased in the past (think about how Amazon and other companies how track your purchases).
- Don’t be boring and wordy in your copy (writing). Keep it compelling and interesting. Use your best storytelling techniques. If we know anything from the digital age, it’s that telling a great story is the best way to attract people’s attention and to show them the many ways your product or service makes their lives easier, or helps them move forward at work.
- Another way to personalize a mailing is to use hand-written fonts. There are many services available now that will “hand write” your message, the address on the envelope, etc. You can even have them use your OWN hand-writing, so it truly feels as though it came from you. Which it did – you just didn’t write out hundreds or thousands of letters by hand.
The great advantage of snail mail now is that you have enough space to tell your story well. In addition, because i involves a comparably larger effort (and expense), there fewer businesses using it, which means that your piece of mail will have far more impact.
Consider if regular postal mail is the right way for you to market. Contact me and we can talk about it!
