My wife has this incredible ability I get to enjoy every evening when I get home. She can take a limited budget and produce amazing things in the kitchen. In her search to help us keep our budget fixed and still provide culinary masterpieces she will often come across recipes that look good in theory, but fall a little short in delivery. What makes her amazing is her ability to make it again with drastically different results. Usually, adding one ingredient or changing one step will turn "This again?" into "Alright, this again!!"
Have you ever done that with a marketing effort? You send the perfect e-mail offer and get no hits. You have this incredible coupon on your social media, but no one brings it in to redeem it. Your website gets no visits, even during a huge promotional period. Sometimes even free can't seem to get any traction. I'll let you in on a little secret we marketing folks call "multi-channel marketing".
I know, I know, you've heard all about the low-cost of moving entirely to web-based advertising and how people don't pay attention to mailers anymore. It's not true. Combining a direct-mail piece with your e-mail and web campaigns can result in up to a 300% increase in decisions to buy and can actually REDUCE your cost per response by 20-25%. That's smart.
(sources Millard Brown, DMA)
It's pretty simple actually. Who are you going to buy from, someone you know or a complete stranger. There are also studies that tell us that the 2nd time someone sees your name with an offer, they are more receptive, because they remember your name. Kinda neat. It's a similar response to seeing a familiar face in a room full of strangers. SO, the next time you're thinking "I can't afford to send out a postcard with this", remember, it may be the difference between "This offer again?" and "I think I'll give this a try..."