The Better the Letter…
For this episode of our podcast, we’re happy to welcome Robert Rebholz, co-founder of optilyz, one of our solution partners. Before starting the service two years ago, he founded the British storage solution provider SpaceWays and the organic fashion label Kindsstoff. He also gained a lot of experience working at Rocket Internet and the management consulting company A.T. Kearney.
Direct Mail like Email
In our podcast, Robert Rebholz explains why direct mail is currently en vogue and what companies can gain using the channel. Direct mail has been an expensive and hard-to-run CRM channel which involved a lot of manual work. But as “software is eating the world”, direct mail experienced a digital transformation and can nowadays easily be integrated into your cross-channel marketing mix.
Vendors like optilyz enable automation and personalization for direct mail at scale, so you can run the channel as if it was email. This enables more precise targeting, rendering the channel way more efficient than back in the days. Direct mail has a lot of potentials since companies can target all existing customers who have provided an address without requiring them to opt in first.
Testing and Automation Increase Conversion Rates and ROI
Direct mail exhibits higher conversion rates than email, but it’s also more expensive. Still, if cunningly used, it can be an important high-value channel. In one of our videos, Florian Bonnet, Head of CRM at HelloFresh, explains how his team managed to double the ROI and conversion rate for direct mail with just a few test campaigns using CrossEngage and optilyz. Besides brands like HelloFresh who are strong in online marketing due to their digital DNA, also traditional players who have used direct mail since forever are using optilyz to transition the channel into the digital age.
What Are Direct Mailings Good For?
Typical direct mail use cases include card abandonment campaigns, cross- and up-selling, as well as churn prevention and reactivation, the latter being the entry case for most companies. According to Robert Rebholz, the usual performance impact of automated and personalized direct mailings is an increase in conversion rates between 30 and 70 percent.
Can I Track It?
It is evident that direct mail cannot be tracked as easily as purely digital channels. But still, there are ways like voucher codes or return envelopes. Robert Rebholz even saw companies tracking responses by fax replies—successfully. Landing pages, on the other hand, don’t perform as good in most cases.