5 Direct Mail Trends for 2015
From personalized URLs to political fundraising, the direct mail trends of 2015 are diverse and different. This year's top direct mail trends use modern technology to help marketers and consumers, as well as tying into major 2015 and 2016 events.
Following trends in the direct mail industry is one of the best ways to stay on top of new trends and technologies to use in your campaigns. Read on to learn more about the top five direct mail trends we've seen emerge in 2015 to utilize in your next postcard campaign.
Political fundraising and awareness campaigns
With the 2016 Presidential Election fast approaching, political direct mail marketing has grown massively in scale. Both Democrats and Republicans, as well as a variety of political organizations, have used direct mail to ramp up their fundraising efforts.
Although most businesses neither benefit nor suffer from political marketing, it does create an additional message to compete with – one that becomes increasingly noisy as the election gets closer.
Personalized URLs and other digital integration
One of the most striking trends of the last five years has been integration between offline and online marketing. In direct mail, digital integration has resulted in large-scale of use personalized URLs, QR codes and other offline/online features.
If your business markets its products or services both online and offline, integrating your marketing campaigns is a great way to enhance your results and build a much stronger connection with your target audience.
Direct mail/mobile campaigns for smartphone users
Market research company eMarketer recently revealed that more than two billion people will own smartphones by the end of 2016, making mobile integration one of the most important priorities for direct mail marketers.
QR codes, which have grown massively in popularity over the last few years, are an easy way to direct recipients' attention from your postcard to your mobile-enabled website to generate leads or complete a sale.
Much more personalization in direct mail pieces
It's not just URLs that are becoming personalized. Thanks to variable data print, it's now easy for direct marketers to customize their postcards to include names, email addresses and other personalized information about their customers.
Today's marketing messages are more relevant than ever, largely thanks to the use of personalization. The growth of personalization makes it even more important to carefully segment postcard campaigns to reach small, highly relevant target audiences.
An increase in travel-related direct marketing
With the economy improving and the US dollar stronger than at any point in the last five years, there's been a significant increase in travel-related direct marketing over the past year.
Target Marketing, which tracks companies that use direct mail to create its annual trends list, only recorded one travel market in its Top 50 Mailers last year. In 2015, it's recorded three, all of which offer European cruise vacations.
What direct mail trends do you expect for 2016?
We're well into the second half of 2015, with the year's direct mail trends already established. Which of this year's marketing trends do you think will incorporate in your 2016 postcard campaign?
