Retargeting Key Prospects and Driving New Sales with Direct Mail

Thankfully, marketers almost always have multiple avenues by which to reach a prospect and lead them out of limbo and across the finish line. Direct mail is the perfect medium for retargeting key prospects and creating new engagement with past customers as we move out of the pandemic-induced lockdown era.

Here are 3 tips for reinvigorating your marketing strategy, reconnecting with prospects and customers, and using direct mail to leave a lasting brand impression.

Leverage past marketing efforts by retargeting important contacts

While “retargeting” is often shorthand for using ads to re-engage prospects in digital spaces, the basic concept is easily applied to virtually any marketing medium to great effect.

More broadly, retargeting can be thought of as any strategy that further nurtures established prospects who have already engaged with your brand in the past, but who ultimately didn’t purchase your service or product. When choosing who to prioritize with retargeting efforts, it’s often useful to start with any data you’ve gathered from past interactions to prioritize the most “meaningful” prospect engagements, e.g. prioritizing someone who joined your mailing list or downloaded your whitepaper over someone who only casually browsed your site.

A useful analogy is to think about the difference between speaking to a receptive or “warm” audience rather than a room full of wary strangers. Or, to put it plainly, it’s simply easier to convert someone with a known interest in your brand than it is to develop new leads, sort out the prospects, and then build brand familiarity before making your value proposition pitch.

To bottom-line it, abandoning valuable prospects and starting from scratch requires a greater investment of time, energy, and dollars. Instead, retargeting prospects with a demonstrated interest in your brand is a cost-effective way to leverage past marketing and create opportunities to convert new customers or move them farther down the funnel.

Retarget with an underutilized, consumer-preferred medium

As mentioned, “retargeting” typically involves online ads, but in this case, we can use direct mail to increase the chances of a prospect opening your message and engaging with its contents. And this isn’t just anecdotal and speculative.

As I’ve previously looked at, consumer opinion polls and industry studies consistently show that consumers flat-out prefer receiving direct mail to digital marketing media and spend more time looking it over. Even more impressively, direct mail open rates routinely reach 80-90%! These rates will be crucial in the coming months as vaccinations continue nationwide and businesses are increasingly able to get back to normal.  Customers and prospects who were previously “keeping their powder dry” during the pandemic are now actively seeking engagement!

Additionally, as the entirety of the business world clamors for attention and engagement, direct mail also works as a great pattern interrupt and can circumvent the conditioned shutdown that consumers are likely to experience as they’re bombarded by digital messaging.

Retargeting prospects through a medium that will almost certainly be seen offers the best shot at creating meaningful re-engagement and converting a sale, which in turn further increases the ROI with past marketing dollars.

A direct mail piece that creates a positive emotional response and that has a strong call-to-action is a sure-fire way to jumpstart new or returning business.

Use 3D direct mail to create a lasting brand impression

Right now, how many “inactive” clients/customers do you already have in your database? How many contacts do you have, who made a one-time purchase or followed your newsletter for a time before predictably dropping off? What would it mean for future sales opportunities and growth potential if even one out of ten past prospects reengages with your brand? As businesses re-open and the nation starts to look and feel “normal” again, now is the time to give your marketing efforts a boost to drive engagement and growth opportunities.

While any marketing approach will benefit from a thoughtful direct mail element, I founded Awesome 3D Cards after recognizing the overwhelmingly positive emotional reactions that people have when they open a flat mailer to reveal a dynamic, 3D model.

In part, this is because a 3D mailer provides the customer with something tangible to experience, which taps into powerful elements of tactile marketing to build and strengthen personal connections. By providing a physical 3D element for customers to interact with, businesses can build connections that are:

• Memorable - As a flat piece of postage folds out into a dynamic 3D model, the recipient experiences surprise and delight, which creates a positive experience and therefore a positive association with the sender.
• Emotional - Opening a 3D card is an enjoyable “micro-experience” that will make the recipient more receptive to the messaging that follows, both in the card itself as well as in follow-ups.
• Personal – On top of the fact that consumers view direct mail as inherently more personal than email, a 3D direct mailer also offers the perfect opportunity to include a hand-written note and signature to help solidify the new connection.

Whether retargeting a past prospect or thanking a strategic B2B partner for their business, sending an Awesome 3D Card will help you frame your next interaction positively and increase chances of making the sale.

To learn more about how you can deliver your message in a way that delights, impresses, and surprises, contact Awesome 3D Cards today.