Why use mailshots?
Mail is a boom advertising medium. And it generally boils down to one key point. It works.
Mail works because it's personal, it's responsive, it's measurable and it's cost effective.
Mail works because it's personal, it's responsive, it's measurable and it's cost effective.
Personal
You talk to an individual on a one-to-one level. It's you and the customer. You have more time to persuade, convince and engage your customers. You can ask customers a direct question, and get a direct response.
Responsive
Mail is the most likely form of communication to get a response from a customer. Physically, because you often actually supply the means of response, which can include coupons, reply cards, application forms or telephone numbers. But also emotionally, because you are talking to people at a time of their choosing, when they are more receptive to messages.
Measurable
You can measure the exact cost of every response. Mail is a continuous learning process: the data collection and analysis on mailshots can deepen your understanding of your customers. What you learn can provide information which will help refine your next campaign. Each mailing can be more effective and more precisely targeted than the last.
Cost effective
Mail provides a very affordable way to sell to people who want to buy. Targeting and profiling customers help maximise return on investments and minimise wastage. And there are other savings to be made: a printed response form, for example, gathers exactly the information you need, at a fraction of the cost of a phone call.
Facts about marketing by mail
- Mail has the power to change the way people think and feel about you because you can make it so personally relevant.
- Mail is engaging. Consumers spend on average 10 minutes reading mailshots. Compare the cost of that length of exposure against other media such as TV.
- Mail is a tangible form of advertising. It gives you a physical presence in your customers’ home or office, and can literally put your product in their hands.
- Mail can be targeted to reach very specific audiences - almost every individual, household and business in the UK can be reached by mail.
- Mail can support and deepen relationships with your customers, building awareness as part of integrated campaigns, or involving customers with your business as part of ongoing, two-way communications. It can provide one of the few opportunities for people who actually use your product or service to tell you how they use it, why, and what else they would like from you.
- Doordrops (unaddressed mail) offer you the chance to talk to people you don't know. You can profile and target lists of likely customers - either in broad geographic or lifestyle bands, or through the use of highly specific street-by-street or even door-by-door data.
- It is estimated that consumer mailshots generate more than £25 billion of business each year. For every £1 spent, £14 is generated.
- Mailshot expenditure has increased by 155% in the last 12 years.
