How COVID-19 Helps Direct Mail

Welcome to the Dove Direct Print and Marketing Blog. Today's post, "How COVID-19 Helps Direct Mail," addresses the idea that sending direct-mail marketing communications during the COVID-19 pandemic is a smart strategic move. Although many customers and prospects, and for that matter, the population at large, are reaching coronavirus burnout, nonetheless, there is a growing need for marketing collateral that delivers business communications, both digitally and traditionally. Who knows when we will return to a sense of pre-pandemic normalcy. Meanwhile, businesses are continuing to adapt and rethink their mission statements, resulting in new ideas and operational methodologies taking shape. The result means that printed materials' role during this pandemic increases in terms of importance and influence.

Our Quote of the Day:  "Basically, books were a luxury item before the printing press." – Nate Silver

The Role of Direct Mail

We have covered a wide range of data and information on direct mail, including surveys from a host of leading data-mining organizations. Direct mail has become progressively more innovative with data management, personalization, various substrates, textures, inks, paper choices, die cuts, and finishes. As a result, print collateral has taken on more creative designs, tapping print as the most tactile and sensory medium of all.  Further, marketers and brands continue to face the challenge of communicating with their customers and prospects, most of whom are home-bound. From this perspective, one can make the argument that direct mail printed collateral is the best way to reach these customers and prospects with the likelihood that there is a very high probability that the communications will be seen and read.

In the age of COVID-19, direct mail has a vital role to play. It delivers a strong readership and improves response rates.  The engagement enhances the likelihood that the recipients will follow through with a call to action, especially if the action is to visit an online destination.  Direct mail can also help avoid infinite scrolling due to the massive influx of internet users and digital messaging during the pandemic.

The Personalized Connection

The pandemic shines a light on the importance of human interaction. These engagements, which are mostly physical attributes, are often taken for granted.  Our ability to touch, feel, see, and interact on a sensory plain with other people is who we are.   We want it.  We crave it.  We may even need it. In the absence of face-to-face human interaction, direct mail is the medium that provides a personalized connection.

Due to the protracted isolation resulting from stay-at-home directives, the mail is now a more sought after form of engagement that represents a physical connection.  Mail also offers a real tangible item, with vibrant colors, and creative applications and texture treatments.  It's a familiar, comfortable, engagement, usually within the convenience of one's home. With most states still under stay-at-home orders, mail becomes a critical physical connection to others.  With pieces being increasingly creative and tangible, the tactile nature of coatings and embellishments remind us of our relationships.

Spending More Time with Mail

Being in a locked-down environment induces multiple positive effects that may be surprising to people. For example, people suddenly find more time to read and process information at a more deliberate pace.

Direct mail marketers should be cognizant that folks are less busy and may want to rethink how and when to use direct mail.  People may be happy engaging with branded collateral because they have extra time.  We dare say, now is the time to send pieces that resonate, and that will be read right away.

Volume Variables

Over the past several years, commercial printers have invested in a wide array of digital printing equipment, such as high-speed inkjet printing presses and high-speed finishing lines.  No longer is creativity relegated to small short-run jobs, thanks to digital technology, large jobs can also run, making the process much more cost-efficient for large volumes.

This digital printing process allows for several variables, such as being able to call up a previous run and make changes, such as text, call to actions, graphics, color treatments, and paper types.  Accuracy and speed saves time, and ensures that lists can be updated, merged, or purged, and so on.

Reach Decision Makers at Home

A critical aspect that COVID-19 helps with is the ability for brands to reach decision-makers.  Pebble Post recently conducted a study entitled, "Home is at the Heart of Commerce Marketing," stating that approximately 90% of purchase decisions occur in the home.  This survey also pointed out that financial services and automotive purchase decisions happen in the home 91% and 94%, respectively.

You can bank on these numbers!  If you target automotive or financial services, the likelihood of reaching a decision-maker is exceptionally high.  Targeted direct mail pieces will most likely be seen and read.  Marketers love to target a captive audience wherever and whenever the situation arises, and during COVID-19, that appears to be an ongoing gift for all marketing concerns.

The odds are also strong that other decision-makers are at home.  Remember the soccer moms?  When soccer moms were the primary target, marketers were aware that the soccer mom gave potential purchase information to the leader of the household and any others who provide input.  Marketers dream of having opportunities of that magnitude where the decision-maker and other influencers are reachable with a direct mail piece.

The Net-Net

We are all looking for days ahead where the light of normalcy peeks around the corner and tell us that we are getting back to business as usual.  We all want our clients, stakeholders, family members, and employees to be safe and healthy.  As the medical community continues to learn how to deal with this pandemic, so is the marketing community concerning various marketing channels and changing human behavior.  While we are grappling with these issues, learning how to engage consumers with direct mail marketing is also on the table.  Thanks for reading, How COVID-19 Helps Direct Mail!


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