What does 2019 have in store for us and how can we align our marketing strategies in preparation? When we hit the new year it’s almost like a reset button has been pressed and we’re ready to embrace change, dive into new projects or re-focus on areas of the business we’ve previously neglected. We hope this list gets those ideas flowing and helps combine your marketing efforts into something successful.

Direct Mail Will Build Trust

Building and maintaining trust with a customer is crucial. Without trust and belief in your business, a sale will not happen. Direct mail is a valued method of communication because typically, customers view it as more authentic than other forms of communication.

In fact, many businesses that turned their back on ‘old school’ methods of marketing are finding it’s crucial to return to more traditional methods in a very digital world.

To increase credibility when sending mail, consider adding information about your team; a friendly face of the CEO or team photo where possible. This is particularly important if you are introducing your services/products to a customer for the first time. Genuine testimonials can also help to add credibility.

Video Marketing

Video just cannot be ignored. It is one of the most powerful forms of online marketing. It boosts interaction, maintains engagement for longer and in most cases, increases conversions. By 2020 it’s predicted that video will be 85% of all consumer traffic within the US. So, how can you utilize video effectively?

Explainer Videos: Use these on-site to explain your service or product in a short video clip. An explainer video works well for more complex offerings.

Customer Testimonial Videos: If you’ve got the time and the resources, creating a case study video, or just compiling lots of testimonials into a video is one way to add credibility.

Micro-Video: Short clips that are usually around 15 seconds long. Instagram story videos are the perfect example of this. You can use these micro-videos to grab attention very quickly and pull social media users into your offer. You can also use micro-videos effectively within paid social media advertising to do the same thing.

If you have some powerful video content to share with customers, you can use other forms of marketing just as direct mail to drive traffic to that video. Utilise an omnichannel direct response strategy, making the most of different traffic driving methods such as email, direct mail and social media.

The Rise of Smart Speakers

We’re talking smart speakers like Amazon’s Alexa home speaker or Apple Homepod. These voice-assisted devices are set to completely change the future of marketing as consumers say they will never go back! We predict large companies like Amazon will start selling ad space connected to their smart speaker devices. We should also start to see a shift whereby more audio content is published online, in a bid to be accessed by smart home devices.

Integrated Marketing

We’ve mentioned that direct mail is a great source of trust, but we’ve also explained just how valuable video marketing is and other forms of online marketing. So what’s the best approach overall? The truth is you need to take an integrated marketing approach in 2019 and utilize both online and offline methods to get the most out of your campaigns.

The other thing to point out is that direct mail gets attention. Prospective customers may get 100’s of email messages a day so SPAM is a persistent problem. People hit delete without even reading the message. You have a lot less competition for attention in a mailbox. It requires a physical action to get the mail and it’s much easier to break through the clutter.

You have a lot less competition for the customer’s attention in the mailbox. It requires a physical action to get the mail. It is much easier to break through the clutter.

Align your campaigns so that they support each other. Include social media icons or hashtag references on offline material where relevant. Collect online data from customers who entered your funnel at an offline point. The more you can integrate all areas of your marketing, the more you will get out of it. Finally, don’t forget to maintain the same branding throughout to ensure smoother integration.

Zairmail (www.zairmail.com) is the fastest and easiest way to send (real) postal mail. Give us a call anytime at 888.898.0066, we would be happy to help with your direct mail needs.

How should you handle professional gifts and communications during the holidays? Many businesses are worried about pitching too hard around the holidays when most people are distracted by festivities, Christmas events or vacation time away. It’s true that December tends to be a jam-packed month for most of your customers. So what’s the right way to approach this and build rapport?

Gifts & Cards

Everyone loves to receive a gift or a card at Christmas. Even if you’re B2B it can be a nice touch to send a gift to large clients, or customers you’ve worked very closely with throughout the year. If the company is large, it’s acceptable to send gifts or cards just to the department you’ve been working with. If you work with many different businesses, a gift isn’t always feasible and a holiday postcard might be a more cost-effective solution. You can still add a personal touch and distribute them quickly and efficiently.

Think Outside the Box

Interaction is often the solution for becoming memorable, building lasting brand awareness and improving customer service. How can you improve interaction through holiday communications? One way is through the power of game! Who doesn’t love a game with family and friends over Christmas? Could you send a card or postcard that doubles up as a mini board game, or provides inspiration for a Christmas family game around the table? Even something as simple as ‘spot the difference’ or a crossword on the back of a postcard could stop that communication from hitting the trash. You could even incorporate your services/products and branding into the game!

Don’t Neglect Key Information

There are some things that really need to be communicated well, like open hours and closure dates over the festive period. Customers need easy access to your holiday hours and they need to know them early! Don’t panic if you’ve not already shared this information, instead try to let customers know directly. Add your holiday hours on to the bottom of email communications. If you’re sending a holiday postcard this year (there is still time), edit in your opening hours and availability.

Avoid Price Hikes

Got some big promotions planned for January? Get your mailing communications underway right now and avoid postage rate increases in the new year. It’s an ideal time to get your January/February promotions in front for your customers, particularly if you’re offering a new year event or new year sale. Despite the fact that your customers are distracted during the Christmas period, everyone is looking for a great deal to save money and many people turn to the January sales to do just that.

When it comes to marketing over the holidays, Zairmail has some fast and inexpensive offers like holiday postcards. It’s not too late to send out and we can handle all of the mailings for you. Holiday postcards could save you a considerable amount of money when compared with traditional holiday cards. Choose a template design now, or upload your own. We can have them on the way in no time.

Zairmail (www.zairmail.com) is the fastest and easiest way to send (real) postal mail. Give us a call anytime at 888.898.0066, we would be happy to help with your direct mail needs.

Your business survives and thrives on customer acquisition and retention. You know the saying… “if you’re not growing you’re shrinking”. Even if you feel like things are ‘maintaining’ well, your business is getting smaller. Whether you see it now or whether you start to notice this in a few months, or years. Growth is crucial. Customer acquisition is also vital to demonstrate traction to future investors and partners you might want to work with.

What’s Your Customer’s Value?

When you start taking things up a notch you really need to be aware of two main figures. The cost of acquiring a new customer and their lifetime value. Without these figures, it’s very difficult to scale acquisition techniques. Step one is to work this out.

A Good Customer Experience

From the moment a customer is introduced to your business until the very moment they make their last ever purchase or exchange, they are on a journey. That journey can either be a terrible experience, or one worth coming back for and recommending to friends. The ‘experience’ starts before a customer has even become a customer. This is absolutely key! Give them a taste of the experience they can expect from you. If you’re giving away a freebie of any kind, treat them like paying customers. If you’re telling a story to encourage engagement, make your branding and values the centre of it.

It’s All About the Interactions

A lot of business strategies don’t involve direct customer strategies until later down the funnel. This makes sense from a cost point of view, but could it actually mean you’re losing out in the customer acquisition game? This really follows on from the point above about customer experience. If you give those customers a direct interaction, (over the phone for example) you’re putting them at the centre and giving them immediate attention. Commonly, after a sale has been made companies try to optimize for fewer interactions. Again, this can be a mistake because follow-up issues often get neglected.

Awareness, Consideration, Decision

Buyers move through a funnel that starts with awareness. This is the point at which they’re introduced to your brand. This doesn’t have to be a time or place in which they are immediately ready to purchase. You can build awareness by using your social media platform, running local ads or of course with direct mail. You don’t need to make awareness campaigns time sensitive. You’re trying to build that connection for the future.

Consideration is the next part in this funnel when someone looking to purchase what you sell starts to consider their options. Due to the awareness you created in the first stage of the funnel, your business is a part of this consideration and might be compared against other competitors. When someone is considering your business they will typically visit your website, or call your business to ask questions. It’s at this stage you should gather their information, so you can re-market to them and help further.

Finally, a decision will be made and a sale will close. This decision might come off the back of a final advert in your funnel, a follow-up call or completely out of the blue.

As long as you’re taking active steps to support people at every stage of the A.C.D funnel you will acquire more customers.

Zairmail (www.zairmail.com) is the fastest and easiest way to send (real) postal mail. Give us a call anytime at 888.898.0066, we would be happy to help with your direct mail needs.