Redefining the Value and Usage of Direct Mail

The term “the Internet” was coined in 1974. It was the year I graduated from high school. The “World Wide Web” was being referenced as early as 1989, the year I moved to Nashville and took a job selling what was then termed “database marketing.” It was targeted direct mail and it had more capabilities to reach segments than any options previously offered. When luxury retailers found out we could hit the higher incomes and higher real estate values, they were ecstatic! When pool and spa folks found out we could hit the new homeowners, they were overjoyed, and when the hearing aid providers found out we could serve up the over sixty crowd with an income select, we were considered marketing heroes! The late eighties up to the late nineties were the “hey day” of targeted direct mail. We could float any reasonable offer out there into the right mail boxes and help retailers and service providers grow their businesses. The response rates were strong.

I am not waxing nostalgic without a purpose here; the refresher course is important to some points I will make about the mail’s still impressive ability to target the right homes, and how we should use it in our new world.

Targeted direct mail, because it demanded printing, mail shop services, postage and information buying, was more expensive than many other advertisement options, but that didn’t matter. The ability to hit the right audience was so powerful and effective that the ROI was always favorable.

Then came a chink in the direct mail and traditional media armor… “Internet marketing”. SEO became a priority and before long, how much web traffic a company had became a major thrust and concern. Mail was still the “go to” harvesting tool with piano dealers when they had a weekend sale, and times were still good for the mail providers because the targeting still delivered larger ticket buyers, and in large enough numbers, so that it was still a great investment… but the world was soon to change.

Why so much time on the “old” definition of direct mail as an advertising format? Because to redefine, we must remember and honor the previous definition of the mail. At one time it was THE harvesting tool in the piano industry. It was supported by other ad options in the mix. There were various and sundry options in varying proportions, but they were always the supporting cast. A well thought out, targeted direct mail campaign was the star of the show and consistently yielded the best appointments and ROI. It was the “Muhammad Ali” of the ad world, the reigning champion, the king of the harvesting tools in the tool box. Then the world changed some more…

There were several contributing factors that all worked together to change the marketing landscape into the selling environment we know it to be today, transform it into what is often referred to as the “new normal.” Allow me to list a few factors:

One HUGE factor was the lack of restraint by advertisers who could not moderate the amount of “sales” they threw. Every holiday, every other day a liquidation was the norm. The word “event” was in the face of every consumer every day because the automotive industry and furniture industry contracted “Event-itis.” They funded and continue to fund (along with Geico, Farmers and the pharmaceutical companies) the on-going existence of network TV. “Event-itis” (if you haven’t looked it up in Funk and Wagnalls or Webster’s dictionary) is the act of fabricating a sale for every excuse under the sun, which may or may not contain a shred of truth or credibility. Consumers never have to wait on a sale very long because if one isn’t going on, one is about to start. Never did it occur to the brilliant ad guys, who were going back to the well every other week, that if you are ALWAYS throwing a sale, then “sale price” becomes your regular price. You know… price, price, price – not value but “everyday LOW prices” is profit margin quicksand. The reality is that you can only sell price above all else so much, or you devalue what it is you sell or the service you provide. The bottom line result: a callous, distrusting public that we worked our rear ends off to create.

Another redefining factor in creating the current marketing landscape? Information. The public no longer seeks out a sales professional for advice as the norm. They can become self-appointed experts on an item or service by Googling it. “Googling” is now a transitive verb. It is a result of the vast amount of power transferred from the seller to the buyer through readily available information in our “new normal.” You can Google most anything, and now there is even “Google Home-Mini” which can help you order Chinese food, buy a concert ticket, make a reservation, vacuum, change the thermostat, update your calendar and find out about almost anything your heart desires to know more about. Your Google Home-Mini can assist in the management of your smart home and it knows the difference between your voice or an imposter. Face it sales pros – the consumer has more power than EVER!

The final, MASSIVE change in consumer behavior is the advent of “online purchasing.” Whether you view it as a good or a bad thing is immaterial. The fact remains that it is a reality, and everyone is either doling it or affected by it. It is commerce in its present form and it is powerful, profitable and NOT diminishing, but accelerating at a remarkable rate. Whether you sell tires, jewelry, guns or pianos, you have felt the power of online commerce and it is here to stay. You must assess its relevance in your specific arena, and either effectively combat it or put it to work for you. Either way, it changes the way you sell.

Will online purchasing replace the luxury marketing sale pros? No. Even though it is a powerful mover of commodities, online selling will not replace the person who can guide another person, who’s searching for that “thing” to fulfill their dreams, to the proper destiny. Yachts, million-dollar properties, one of a kind jewelry, fine cars and pianos will always call for a “buying experience” and some thoughtful consideration before pulling the old proverbial trigger. That said, the shopping cart mentality that has been branded into the culture, and how people gather information in the discovery process, isn’t going anywhere. Even luxury market sales organizations must cater to the insatiable appetite for information of the online shopper. If you don’t believe in the power of online shopping, just do a little research into the plight of the big box stores since Amazon has become the global force it has. Shoppers are online and not driving around shopping as they once were. You must engage them where they are.

So, in summary, these three items: Event-itis, tons of information available to the consumer, and online shopping have created a new “shopping culture”.

How does direct mail play into today’s marketing?

With the days of a call per 1,000 (Heaven forbid the heyday of one per 500) behind us, we can no longer justify the expense of large mail campaigns solely on their harvesting capabilities. As CEO and owner of a mail agency, I have lived through the good times and now am helping my clients navigate their way through the current landscape. There is no hiding from the fact that direct mail doesn’t yield the same harvest it once did. Fact. What is the answer? How can mail help if it doesn’t harvest the way it used to?

Before we address the new way it should be used, let’s give it its due; a well thought out targeted direct mail campaign still delivers the large ticket buyers better than any other vehicle. We can admit it isn’t what it once was, yet time and again, when we follow up after a sales event and ask where the larger units came from, the mail still delivers great numbers of high-end buyers. It is hard for some dealers to get comfortable with the lack of volume they have now vs. the good old days, but let’s look at some real numbers a dear industry specialist, and friend, just shared with me. In 1980 there were 233,000 pianos sold in the good ol’ US of A. In 2015 – 34,000, 14.6 of that. The decline has been steady. By 2005 it was down to 95,000. I am not writing about this specific topic, only referencing it to make this statement: the ability of the mail to harvest is dramatically affected by the amount of interest in the product, and the amount there is to harvest. Little has been done to create new interest in this old instrument from a marketing standpoint, and that also is not the topic here but a stark fact.

Herein lies the targeted mail’s greatest value – the ability to route highly profiled households to the Internet, where they can be captured and owned as a lead. Perfect segue into how the mail can be a fantastic lead generation partner in our cyberspace dominated world…

As opposed to being used solely as a harvesting tool, we must realize that the better the blood in our pipeline – the better the stuff that comes out the other end is. Since the best households are found most efficiently through postal targeting, the mission of the mail becomes two-fold: Firstly, to give the proper people the chance to do business with you now. Secondly, the chance for them to trust you as their concierge moving forward. There is no better place to find concentrations of segments to communicate with than refined direct mail targeting, or as we called it when it first came out, “database marketing.”

Some examples of segments you could mail and ask for e-mail and interest information from would be: Physicians, New Homeowners, self-professed Performing Arts Lovers, Chinese and/or Asians, homes with Income Producing Assets, Discretionary Income and Families. Small mailings, with lasered in messages and offers (not necessarily bottom line oriented) which entice people to have dialogue with you, allow you to grow your catalog of prospects. Why is this important?

Because, for a sales organization there is nothing more important than leads! Where are we, any of us sales types, without enough people to tell our story to? And if you want quality people to work long term, why not employ the best targeting on the planet? There is no reason to stick mail in a marketing box and only regard it as a harvesting tool. With the buyer gestation period longer than ever, the remedy is MORE leads, so something is always coming mature. If in the old days we had made six figures by keeping at least 10-15 qualified prospects in the pipeline, then in today’s world we need to double or triple that. If the gestation period is twice or three times as long, it stands to reason that we need two or three times the amount of folks we are in ongoing dialogue with. I would bet that if the same person had 30-45 leads always working, they would have little problems hitting their goals.

The summary is simple. Let’s employ direct mail in intelligent ways, in small intense doses, with messages that resonate with the targets by speaking to them about things that matter to them, so we can “harvest” more profiled leads than our competitors. Why? The same goal I always ask my clients to set their sights on… to make more friends. Make more friends who will allow us to be their tour guide on the way to finding the perfect instrument for them. Why? Because the company with the most friends wins!

“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”– Dale Carnegie

Happy Selling!