Green Peaks Marketing Services LLC

When most people think about marketing today the tactics that come to mind often include Google search ads, digital banner ads, multi-million dollar Superbowl TV commercials, or a modern day social media campaign featuring an influencer eating their way out of a room filled with Cheetos. It might take a while until they mention the almost forgotten medium of direct mail, which has been in decline since the 1990’s.

And small business owners are no different. Often with small budgets, the plethora of modern day digital tools to reach prospects and customers, boosted by ever more content urging small business owners to go digital , it all leaves little room for consideration (or imagination) when it comes to Direct Mail.

But direct mail is not dead! With a bit of imagination, planning and an understanding about the possibilities, it can provide a welcome shake up to modern day marketing and capture the attention of your target market that blows digital tactics away. Keep reading to learn how we helped a client in the Landscaping sector create an effective direct mail marketing campaign involving gifting, that generated a 22% lift on their annual service plan renewals compared to previous years.

A Brief History of Marketing in the Last 50 Years

Marketing has come a long way in the last 50 years. Back in the the 1970’s people were exposed to around 500 ads per day, and according to market research firm Yankelovic this increased to around 5,000 per day in 2007 and today, that number is a staggering 10,000 per day. Of course the catalyst for this is the internet, and the subsequent proliferation of devices and digital media opportunities that keep us connected to it pretty much 24/7.

While both mobile phones and personal computers did exist in the 1970’s (a mobile phone then would have cost you $12,000 in today’s money!) it wasn’t until the mid to late 90’s that mass adoption really took off. At the same time worldwide internet usage was 45 million in 1996, increasing to 407 million by the year 2000.

That has been the catalyst for devices that would have been unimaginable a few decades ago which can all be used by companies to reach audiences as part of their marketing strategies from Smart Watches, Personal Voice Assistants, Smart Refrigerators and Connected Digital Billboards.

But even with all of these devices and all of the ads you’re being served on a daily basis, I challenge you to pause for a moment right now and try to recall 5 ads that you remember seeing or hearing through a digital marketing channel in the past 24 hours.

Can you recall what the brand was and, and if so can you remember the message that they were trying to communicate to you? Was it a new product launch, was it a promotion to renew membership, was it a brand campaign to make you feel warm and fuzzy to just lodge the brand in your head?

Digital Marketing Blindness: Blinded by the Lights!

Back in the mid-20th century famous landmarks like Times Square in NYC and Piccadilly Circus in London were places that people would marvel at. The humongous neon lights featuring big brand advertising were iconic – I can recall the brands even today. JVC, Sony, Sanyo, McDonalds, Pepsi and of course Coca Cola. The neon lights were replaced by digital billboards in the 1990’s and people were still in awe, posting for photos beneath the illuminations.

Today, people may still impressed by the scale at these, and similar modern landmarks across the globe, but are they really looking at, and actually registering, the ads being displayed since it seems we are becoming immune to the medium being able to tune out the flashing images, whether on large screen or small. I call this, digital blindness, others might say that the ads on such mediums have become like “wall paper”.

I decided to run a ‘quick & dirty’ survey (certainly not on the scale of Yankelovics’ study!) on LinkedIn to post this question to my network and the results were interesting, especially when you consider that my network is actually skewed towards marketers. As you can see by the results it’s not easy at all to recall ads we’re being targeted with through digital channels.

Direct Mail is Fighting Back!

Direct mail went into rapid decline in the 1990’s, largely thanks to the cost advantages of email marketing and the excitement and urge by people to adopt this new channel. Believe it or not, people used to rush home from work excited about logging-on to see if they’d received an email!

Studies show that direct mail is likely to grow from $79B in 2004 to $88B in 2028 and there are many data points to back up why it’s a good bet for marketers to take note and consider adding more direct mail into their marketing mix.

Direct Mail vs Email

As already pointed out in this article we live in an ever more digitally fragmented world where email inboxes do not get the same attention that they once did- in fact an email that is looked at for more than 4 seconds is actually considered success, but that’s hardly enough time to land a message.

As somebody with extensive experience in email marketing over the last 15 years I can tell you that it has become a real struggle trying to grow, and even maintain, email open and click through rates for a number of reasons reasons.

Secondly, there has been a huge surge in the volume of email as a result of marketing automation. In fact email volume increased 70% between 2020 and 2022. Hands up anyone who has more than 500 unread emails sitting in their personal email accounts!

Compare that to a physical piece of direct mail, which, according to The Business Research Company, has an average response rate as high as 4.4%, compared to 0.6% for email. Further, direct mail has an ROI of almost 4:1, so while it certainly is more expensive per person to reach, as long as you are being strategic and very well targeted the rewards can be lucrative.

Direct Mail vs Digital Ads

When you consider digital marketing channel tactics such as a social media ad or other type of display ad, marketers often obsess over metrics including Reach and Impressions. Impressions are defined as the number of times your message is “seen”, but if we splash ourselves with a dose of realism, it seems fair to say that those ads were not all seen.

Compare that to a piece of direct mail which is much more likely to not only be seen, but actually touched by the targeted recipient. In fact the same Direct Mail Advertising Report by The Business Research company as linked to previously states that open rates may be upwards of 57% for direct mail.

Impactful Direct Mail: How to Make a REAL Impression!

When a client approached us with the challenge of helping them increase revenue and customer retention, by moving people to full year service plans, their inclination was to ask for help with a digital strategy.

In the winter, when gardens are dormant the company offers services such as driveway snow removal and those customers, which is an opportunity to increase customer lifetime value (CLV) and retain business.

Part of the problem was that many of their used other companies for snow removal, or maybe did it themselves. This increased the risk of attrition since a lapse in service presents a gap where competitors can move in or customers decide to shop around for a new provider the following year. So, getting customers to commit to an annual plan or just get commitment to pay for the winter services in addition to the landscaping offering was the goal.

The client was looking for a multi-tactic digital strategy, but we felt that an impactful direct mail element could really help too.

We developed a campaign that combined digital and print marketing and involved segmenting customers by value, which was basically related to their lot size (yard and driveway). This approach made sense since its so important for small business to allocate their marketing budget accordingly based on potential ROI of the segments.

For those customers with a small lot size we redesigned the email program with 2-3 touches that were sent as winter approached. The first email included a mention just about the winter services, the second and third emails offered a 5% discount. A single direct mail postcard was also sent with a QR code to redeem the 5% discount on winter snow removal services. And yes, the post card did outperform the email by 6%.

Surprise & Delight Your High Value Customers with Gifting

Now for those customers with a a larger lot size, and thus higher potential ROI. They too were sent the emails but instead of the direct mail postcard, a gift was sent in the form of a warm hat and gloves for the winter. While some people may perceive 5% to be such as small discount that it isn’t worth taking action, a gift with a personalized thank you message is hard to ignore.

Gifts immediately trigger positive emotions such as happiness, excitement and gratitude. They make people feel special, making them more likely to reciprocate with a kind gesture in return. This is known as the reciprocity principle, a tool used by marketers for many years to help stimulate a desired action from customers. And the gift, plus packaging actually cost less than $11, which is far less than a 5% discount would have cost the business

When testing the gifting campaign against the postcard, it drove a 19% higher response rate.

Seeds of Success for a Spring Direct Mail Campaign

Based on the success of the winter campaign, we tried something similar for the new year spring season – an important time for landscapers to lock in customers for the year on annual service plans.

This time the gift offered was a selection of seeds (flowers, vegetables), and seeds are much cheaper than a hat and gloves! The annual renewal rate was 22% higher than the prior year when the company relied only on email or basic direct email letter & envelope.

Direct mail gives you a chance to be much more creative, truly land your message and if done well with personalization and smart segmentation, can produce a very attractive return on your marketing investment