7 Innovative and Exciting Direct Mail Trends for 2018

It has proven to be one of the most successful marketing strategies for communicating with your prospects, and the industry will only continue to grow. We are outlining the direct mail trends for 2018 to ensure you stay ahead of your competitors.

Programmatic Mail

As of 2018, Programmatic mail is going to be one of the biggest buzzwords when it comes to direct mail marketing and, subsequently, direct mail trends. This type of marketing is the future of direct mailing, with specialist mailing houses – including WDM – already  able to provide this. To create a customer persona, you no longer have to rely on the direct mail marketing stick figures of the past. Programmatic mail is a data-driven approach to direct mail, enabling you to create an accurate profile of your audience and deliver highly-personalised direct mail to their door. The technology to now target left-handed men who play football with their right foot and regularly buy caramel cappuccinos exists, and it spells the future of direct mail.

Studies have found that direct mail combined with online direct marketing strategies achieves a higher response rate, as direct mail triggers more emotion than digital ads. Programmatic mail is a method to modernise the traditional marketing strategy, resulting in higher revenue for companies implementing the technology. Programmatic mail transforms online activity into personalised direct mail. Taking your data, programmatic mail allows your business to deliver postcards or catalogues to your consumers, within as little as 12 hours of them browsing your website. Programmatic direct mail is already outperforming traditional direct mailing and digital advertising with response and conversion rates. The best part of this process is that it’s all automated, saving you precious time and reducing printed waste.

At WDM, we can organise the automation of your consumer data, direct mail management and direct mail printing, along with fulfilment. As a fulfilment house, we strive to be ahead of the technology.

Personalised Direct Mail

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With the increase of programmatic direct mail comes personalised direct mail. If you are not looking into this form of mail as part of your marketing strategy, you are missing a trick – that’s not just from us as one of the UK’s biggest mailing companies. Personalised direct mail is highly-targeted and returns spectacular results, compared to that of direct mailing labelling a consumer as ‘the homeowner’. With the advance of data technology, such as programmatic direct mail, you can create clear and accurate personas to ensure you are identifying and satisfying their shopping needs and buying habits. Therefore, increase visitors to your brand and improving revenue.

Integrated Marketing

Multi-channel integration is gaining speed in 2017 and will continue to be one of the biggest direct mail trends in 2018. The synergistic advantages of integrated marketing are ten-fold, and research has proven that marketing strategies combining direct mailing and, for example, email marketing have improved responses. Coordinating your messages across multiple channels, allows you to broaden your message and speak to more people. We’ve even outlined the powerful direct mail stats to improve your business.

You can integrate your direct mailing and online advertising, by offering QR codes or personalised URLs on direct mailers. The consumer can then scan the QR code with their smartphone to reach a targeted landing page, offering exclusive discounts or products. The content must also be specific to their interests and habits, which is where personalised direct mail comes in. You could also use mailing companies for direct mail management to segment your audience in the buying cycle, allowing you to send follow-up messages and keep your brand fresh in their mind.

Dimensional Mail

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Postcards, letters and catalogues are proven direct mailer formats, but it’s time to think out of the envelope. The rise in automated marketing and advancements in technology means your direct mail could soon be left in the past, so you must start to consider dimensional mail. Dimensional pieces, as they are called, stand out from the crowd of junk mail and attract more attention. You could include a promotional package with your personalised direct mail, requiring your prospects to build it to access your services. The interaction will achieve higher responses. We’re sharing our creative examples of direct mailing to help improve your direct mail management, and how to approach mailing houses with your ideas.

Enhanced Data

Technology is available to produce accurate data. You can target a buyer’s shopping habits and needs, attempt to retarget them if they happened to leave their basket empty; you can even find out about their personal interests. The possibilities when it comes to data is endless, and you must keep yours up to date. Your prospects list should always be fresh to ensure you are placing your product and services in front of the right people, at the best time. It’s a massive waste of resources to target people on the off-chance they may be interested in what you are offering.

Should you also be outsourcing to a mailing house, you need to provide the mailing companies with accurate data to ensure the success of your direct mail management. If you can, attempt to enhance your data for highly-personalised direct mail marketing.

Augmented Reality

Augmented reality is experiencing huge popularity within direct mailing, similar to that of programmatic mail. Pokemon Go created the virtual reality buzz with the launch of the game, and you can incorporate that into your direct mail marketing services. Creating your direct mail, with the help of a mailing house, and producing mail that comes to life is powerful. Your consumers can scan a particular code to see your illustration, for example, come to life. Brands are also turning to Snapchat to incorporate augmented reality into their direct mail.

UV Spot Printing

We’ve come to our last point, but it’s no less important than the others. Once you have produced your direct mail and are happy with the direct mail designs, consider the type of direct mail printing. Consumers have stated that the better the direct mail printing, the more likely they are to pick up and read the direct mailer.
UV spot printing is becoming a major benefit to direct mail management, and we predict it will be a huge direct mail trend. The turnaround with UV spot printing is set to become even faster and more cost effective with the introduction of digital UV presses. The effect is spectacular when compared to standard direct mail.

If you would like to get in touch with one of our team regarding direct mail printing services, and what WDM Online can do in regards to direct mail services – call us today.