Liz Grinnell by

Ideas to Connect: Social Media and Direct Mail Combine Forces

Econoprint

Social media is currently one of the most highly used and cost-efficient digital marketing methods. It can instantly increase your brand’s awareness or not increase the brand. While it’s clear that social media has its advantages and should be a part of your inbound marketing strategy, combining your social media efforts with tangible direct mail pieces will create more engagement and further connect your audience.

If you’re hesitating on the relevance of direct mail, you’re not alone. More often than not, direct mail pieces fall flat when they fail to do one simple thing—ask the customer to interact with their brand. It seems like an obvious thing to do, but in reality it’s often overlooked. With a little planning and some creativity, the ideas below will help you avoid this marketing misfire and get you moving in the right direction.

3 Ideas to Connect Your Audience

  1. Always put your social media icons on your direct mail piece. This is an often-overlooked step in direct mail marketing that can give your business new followers, and ultimately, new customers. These icons tell your customers that you have more information and pictures to share, as well as where they can go to check them out. If they are interested in your brand, they now know you have an online presence and you’ve succeeded in making a connection between your print and online marketing efforts.

Examples of how you can connect direct mail with social media.

  1. Include a link on your direct mail piece that will drive traffic to your landing page. This is a page that will direct your customer or target audience to an upcoming event or fundraiser. The landing page is the place where they’ll find a form to fill out, donate money, or products to purchase, converting the visitor to a buyer. You will also want to share this landing page on your active social pages like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, to engage more viewers and increase website traffic.
  2. Create an interactive campaign. This is a unique way to engage your customers, and a fun way for them to interact with your brand. There are a number of ways to make your campaign interactive with your customer. One example, could be to direct your audience through your direct mail piece providing clues to lead more viewers to your website. Make sure you provide an incentive so the participant knows they will be rewarded for their efforts. This can be a clever way to highlight a new site or simply increase traffic to a specific area of interest.

Direct mail and social media continue to be extremely effective forms of marketing. When you join these two platforms, you’ll ultimately see a larger return on your marketing investment. Social media marketing options are readily available and often complementary to the tried and true marketing techniques, like direct mail. By using multiple formats as a part of your marketing strategy, you’ll succeed in building your brand and expanding your reach into new, and profitable markets.