[Background: Kaia Watkins is the direct mail specialist for Flint Direct in our Fargo office. She has been a designer at Flint Communications since 2006, specializing in direct marketing creative in 2011. In her new position, Kaia provides strategic and creative planning as well as direct marketing campaign development.

Recently, Kaia earned her certificate as a DMA Certified Marketing Professional (DCMP). The DCMP program certifies that marketing professionals have reached a high level of expertise in the core aspects of direct marketing. The DMA is recognized throughout the marketing community as the definitive source for information about marketing research, regulatory issues and best practices.

To obtain her certificate, Kaia completed a series of online courses and passed a diagnostic test. Congratulations, Kaia, on your impressive achievement!]

Just a few years ago, direct mail was king.

The stack of snail mail we came home to every day was proof. Then the economy tanked, budgets were cut, and everyone jumped on the digital marketing bandwagon. Many thought this marketing channel would never rebound to what it once was, but today we’re seeing a trend back to the ‘old faithful’ of advertising.

It’s not often that old-school methods are favored over the shiny and new. So why is direct mail working so well in this online world?

1. Personalization. We know more about our customers today than ever before, and thanks to continued innovation in digital printing, we can talk to each customer on an individual level. Make your customer feel special by adding their name throughout the piece, include a photo of a product they’ve previously purchased, or include a coupon that’s custom-tailored for them.
2. Multi-Channel Communication. Gone are the days of only having an 800 number or reply card as your response mechanism. Now customers can call, click, like, text, tweet or scan. Your campaign should never end with direct mail. Use the power of offline to continue the conversation online.
3. Flooded Inboxes, Empty Mailboxes. The shift to online marketing has changed how we read emails. Due to the sheer volume of emails received on a daily basis, we’ve become somewhat desensitized. But when it comes to snail mail, our mailboxes aren’t nearly as full as they used to be. Your customers are more likely to notice one of a handful of direct mail pieces over one of a hundred emails.
4. Improved Mail Services. Barcodes aren’t just for sorting mail anymore. The Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB) from USPS allows us to track when mail pieces are entered into the mail stream all the way down to when they are out for final delivery. Armed with this information, marketers can follow the direct mail piece with a strategically timed second message, such as a phone call or email.
5. The Sense of Touch. The sensation of touching a direct mail piece has more impact than you’d think. It’s easy to dismiss an email or ignore an online ad without really thinking about it. Direct mail is a different story. You have to physically make the effort to pick it up, and then comes decision time: read it or toss it. By then your customer has already scanned at least one side of your mailing—a partial victory in itself! Use the sense of touch to catapult your piece above the rest by using a specialty paper stock or oversized format.

So don’t count it out just yet—give direct mail a try on your next campaign and you may be pleasantly surprised by your results.