What is a Mailshot?
Mailshot is a term often used by businesses when discussing marketing campaigns or customer communications. But what is a Mailshot and how can they benefit your business?
A mailshot is a form of direct marketing used to contact a large group of prospective or existing customers. From direct mail to e-shots, there are a number of approaches to mailshot campaigns that your business or organisation may take, depending on what is best suited to your target audience.
Mailshots can be sent in different formats with popular options including letters, postcards, flyers and emails. The format may be decided depending on the offer or information that you’re trying to communicate with your customers, and which platform and mail type would best suit the needs of the campaign.
What are the benefits of Mailshots?
Mailshots are a tried and tested method of direct marketing, utilised by many businesses over the years as an effective way of promoting their brand, products or services:
- High response rates: academic studies have shown that mailshot campaigns using direct mail have a significantly higher response rate than email or other forms of digital marketing; we tend to create a stronger emotional connection to printed mail due to its tangible nature
- Integrated marketing: when used in conjunction with other marketing channels, mailshots have a proven track record of boosting the effectiveness of promotional campaigns by reinforcing your messaging through physical media
- Highly cost effective: compared with digital advertising, mailshots campaigns offer a far more cost effective method of promoting your products or services as well as offering a higher ROI
- Increase Brand Awareness: as direct mail is delivered straight into the hands of your customers; it creates an immediate and tangible interaction with your brand and is therefore far more likely to resonate with your target audience
- Highly targeted: with a clear understanding of your audience, you can generate bespoke mailing lists and personalised messaging to target key stakeholders and customer groups
- Can help to support your wider marketing strategy and campaigns across other channels such as on social media or on your website itself
What are mailshots used for?
You can use mailshots for a variety of reasons, some of the most common uses from businesses include:
- Launching a new product or service
- Promoting an existing product or service
- To increase website traffic
- To increase brand awareness
- To support a wider marketing campaign
- Keeping in touch with existing customers to encourage an on-going relationship with them
How to create a mailshot?
Creating an effective mailshot campaign can be difficult, it’s important to first establish your target audience. Think about your ideal demographic in terms of age, gender and interests and tailor your mailshot in a way that speaks to that particular demographic. This could be through the style you use, the overall wording and the final call to action.
Our in-house team of mailshot experts are on hand to help, we can help your business come up with a defined approach and execute it in a way that will provide a high ROI. We also have a team of designers on hand to bring your message to life and promote your brand through powerful communications.
What’s an example of a successful mailshot?
A good mailshot campaign should have been well thought out and contain a clear message and call to action. It’s best to provide multiple call to actions such as an email address, phone number and website URL so that the recipient can get in touch in a way that best suits them. Incentives are also a good way to increase the response rate from your mailshot, whether this is by offering a discount code or even a prize to try and get people involved.
Personalising your mailing list will also help your mailshot campaign succeed. You can segment your mailing list and add personal touches such as names to your communications to make the recipient feel more involved and valued. You can also edit the communication depending on the demographic of the user, to make it more tailored to them. Also consider any data you have about their previous purchases and buying habits – have all their orders come at a certain time of the month or in a certain quantity at a time? Use this information to your advantage and edit your campaign to better appeal to individual recipients.
Direct Mail vs Email
Though your mailshot campaign could include e-shots or e-newsletters, the vast majority of mailshots focus on direct mail – a process of marketing that involves sending a piece of physical communication or promotional material to a targeted area or customer base.
When it comes to bidding for your customers’ attention, direct mail is demonstrably more effective than email. According to a study conducted by Marketreach, the long-term memory encoding of mail is 49% stronger than email, making it more likely to impact on future behaviour. Furthermore, the same study revealed that 87% of UK consumers said they were influenced to make online purchases as a result of receiving direct mail.
This is not to say that you should avoid email campaigns altogether. The power of email marketing, or e-shots, lies in its ability to reach your target audience almost instantaneously, as well as provide valuable data on how your audience engages with your content. E-shot campaigns can also be a highly effective way of driving traffic to your website and helping to improve your SEO efforts. When used in conjunction with direct mail, a well-planned and executed e-shot can reinforce your promotional campaign.
However, it seems digital fatigue has been encroaching into the lives of the modern consumer. One in five people surveyed admitted to needing a ‘digital detox’, with 70% of people looking to reduce their overall consumption of digital media. In a world saturated by social media, spam emails, and pop-up ads, your e-shot could be just another digital distraction wilfully ignored by your target audience. Coupled with the heightened GDPR regulations now governing electronic communications, as well as the ever-restrictive spam filters, direct mail has become a far more effective method of reaching your audience than emails alone – providing a longer-lasting, meaningful interaction with your brand.
Mailshots provide opportunities to cross-sell
Existing customers are generally considered easier to sell to, as they already have some degree of trust and brand loyalty, making them more likely to be interested in related products or services. A Direct mail campaign to your established customer base is a powerful medium for cross-selling, particularly as a significant number of households end up making a purchase as a result of receiving direct mail. That, coupled with the impressive response rates associated with direct mail, makes it one of the most effective avenues for generating further business.
With approximately 75% of the cost of direct mail being attributed to postage, a well-designed direct mail pack can maximise its value by incorporating promotional materials for additional products or services. If you need to send out a standard customer communication, why not include a flyer for your latest promotion, or more information about your other products without paying any additional postage?
How to send a mailshot?
With enough staff, the right equipment to create the style and finish you want, and the facilities to manage high-volume direct mail campaigns, it’s perfectly feasible to manage your mailshots in-house. However, sending bad mailshots can be worse than sending no mailshots, so you need to make sure you know what you’re doing before you choose this option.
Alternatively, you can save yourself the hassle of managing your own mailshots by outsourcing this to company with the resources and expertise to deliver and manage market-leading mailshot campaigns.
At Integrity Connect, we use cutting-edge document composition software that allows us to create content rich, highly personalised communications that are optimised to be delivered through your channel of choice.
We provide 100% mailing service for clients sending out high volume direct mail work, and offer unrivalled firepower for the production of direct mail stationery and inserts.
We pride ourselves on working closely with our clients to ensure that their campaigns reach their target audience through the ideal channel – be it direct mail, email, or SMS – all the while maintaining consistent branding and tone of voice.
Get in touch with one of our Mailshot specialists to discuss your next campaign, and find out how Integrity Connect can help you reach your audience through trusted, engaged, powerful communication.
