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Tag: Direct Mail

  • Gen Z’s Limiting Screen Time — Here’s How to Reach Them Now | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    I’m sure you’ve heard these comments before: “The youth today are addicted to their phones.” Although there are plenty of stereotypes about the youngest generations, some of these common assumptions are not always true.

    Recent studies have confirmed that Generation Z, aka Gen Z, aka Zoomers, the oldest of whom are 28 this year, are turning the corner on their “always on” reputation.

    New research shows that 81% of Gen Z adults (and 78% of millennials!) often wish they could disconnect from digital devices more easily, and 74% of them feel real-life experiences are more important than digital ones. Another study showed that nearly half (46%) limit their screen time in some way, with 17% saying they limit their screen time on all or most days.

    Even more telling: Searches for “digital detox ideas” and “digital detox vision boards” are also up by 72% and 273% respectively.

    In a quest for balance, people are looking to get offline. This is why it’s increasingly important to get creative with your marketing tactics, something I’ve leveraged successfully to build a $100 million business from nothing, without any capital injections or funding.

    Gen Z may not be the largest population in the U.S., but they have real buying power. Studies show that these young trend-setters impact family spending habits as much as 77%.

    So here are two ways to connect with Gen Z on their terms and generate more revenue for your business.

    Related: 5 Simple, Science-Backed Ways Entrepreneurs Can Connect With Gen Z

    Use the offline tactic that led 91% of Gen Z to make a purchase last year

    Gen Z was the first generation to grow up fully online. As a result, offline marketing is novel again. Whether this is radio, print magazines or even in-person marketing, 74% of Gen Z consider real-life experiences as more important than digital ones.

    Research shows that direct mail, in particular, works well with Gen Z. In fact, it’s reported that 72% of the Gen Z population said they would be disappointed to no longer receive mail, and that they look forward to receiving it every day.

    Not only does this generation appreciate mail, they respond to it — 91% of Gen Z say they’ve made a purchase as a result of mail they received.

    This is something I’ve seen firsthand in my own business. We analyzed 115,393 leads generated in 2024 — the sum of all our direct mail and digital leads, no cherry picking whatsoever — and discovered that we made $253.54 per direct mail lead and only $41.60 per digital lead. That’s over a 500% difference!

    Even though direct mail has been around for decades, that doesn’t mean it’s without newfound bells and whistles that will help you appeal even more to today’s generation. Digital printers have made highly personalized mail pieces possible. Today, it’s easy to include eye-catching personalizations on individual mailers, like a recipient’s first name, a stock image of someone in the same demographic group or even product images related to past purchase behaviors and more.

    Another modern-day trick is direct mail automation, which allows your business to tap into unique events along the customer journey with trigger-based mailings. The carves out a highly personalized experience for prospects and customers alike. For example, imagine visiting an ecommerce website and shopping around without making a purchase. If you received a postcard a couple of days later featuring the product you were looking for with a 15% discount code, would you be tempted to go back and buy? I know I would!

    Direct mail automation like this is still a relatively new technology, which means you have time to jump on it and run a few tests for your business to see if it works — likely before your competitors do the same.

    Related: How to Boost Your Business With Direct Mail Automation and Retargeting — a Detailed Beginner’s Guide

    Attention is worth its weight in gold, so diversify your marketing to boost attention on your campaign by 39%

    Gen Z loves video — whether they are actively trying to reduce screen time or not. From TikTok to YouTube, they love short- and long-form video content. Research confirms that more than half (60%) of all TikTok users are Gen Z, and 51% visit YouTube daily. So, including video content in your marketing strategy is important.

    In my business, we’ve capitalized on this by including more video in online marketing. We took some of our video case studies and shortened them for social media ad content. As a result, our average number of social media leads per week doubled from 174 in 2022 to 356 in 2023! That’s a 105% increase, and it’s held steady since then.

    Yes, Gen Z is limiting screen time, but that doesn’t mean they’re eliminating it. I advise you to make the most of the hours they spend scrolling — or even sitting on the couch watching Netflix.

    The best part about leveraging video ads on popular platforms as well as on TV is that you can target the same groups of people on your mailing lists. It’s a great way to stay in front of your most qualified leads and keep your business top of mind.

    I recommend obtaining a list of your ideal prospects and targeting them with direct mail and video ads on Facebook, Instagram and even ad-supported connected TV (CTV). When they wake up and check their phones, they come across your video ad on Instagram, then in the afternoon they receive a postcard from you, and in the evening they see a CTV commercial about your business in between shows on Amazon Prime.

    This creates an effect where prospects feel like they are seeing your business everywhere. I even created a service to do exactly this, called Everywhere Small Business, in case you want to try this approach without managing all of the ads on separate platforms yourself.

    Related: I’ve Helped 124,393 Entrepreneurs With Their Advertising — Here Are My Top 3 Secrets Proven to Generate Results

    Studies show that this type of multi-channel, integrated approach garners 39% more attention than single-media campaigns. That’s the kind of lift in response that could be the key to shortening your sales cycle and boosting revenue — and it’s even more effective when it runs on autopilot while you focus on more important things.

    In my 27-plus years of experience in marketing, I’ve learned that these tactics will help turn heads both online and offline. Whether it’s for the youngest or the oldest generations, these strategies will deliver real results.

    I’m sure you’ve heard these comments before: “The youth today are addicted to their phones.” Although there are plenty of stereotypes about the youngest generations, some of these common assumptions are not always true.

    Recent studies have confirmed that Generation Z, aka Gen Z, aka Zoomers, the oldest of whom are 28 this year, are turning the corner on their “always on” reputation.

    New research shows that 81% of Gen Z adults (and 78% of millennials!) often wish they could disconnect from digital devices more easily, and 74% of them feel real-life experiences are more important than digital ones. Another study showed that nearly half (46%) limit their screen time in some way, with 17% saying they limit their screen time on all or most days.

    The rest of this article is locked.

    Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.

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    Joy Gendusa

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  • 3 Compelling Reasons to Invest in Direct Mail Marketing | Entrepreneur

    3 Compelling Reasons to Invest in Direct Mail Marketing | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    It isn’t easy to overshadow the Super Bowl, but in 2015, that’s exactly what happened. Katy Perry’s halftime performance went viral because one of her backup dancers (now famously known as Left Shark) danced to the beat of their own drum — literally.

    Out of the dozens of dancers on stage in beachy costumes, Left Shark stole the show with dance moves that weren’t just out of sync — they were on a different planet. It turned out that Left Shark, a.k.a. Bryan Gaw, performed his goofy moves on purpose as part of his freestyle choreography.

    In a lot of ways, building a successful marketing strategy is the same. You certainly have the option of going with the flow of what everyone else is doing, but what you really need are Left Shark moves — standout tactics that generate meaningful impressions.

    In my 25 years of experience, the best way to do that is to get offline and get into your prospects’ homes. Here are three reasons why direct mail steals the show and how you can make it work for you.

    Competition in the mailbox dropped 16%, freeing up space for you to capture more attention and market share

    The United States Postal Service (USPS) recently announced its financial results for the third quarter of 2023 (April 1-June 30, 2023). They reported marketing mail volume declined 2.6 billion pieces or 16% (costing over $333 million in revenue) compared to the same quarter last year.

    I experienced something similar in 2020, when marketing mail volume decreased 15% due to the pandemic. Most businesses — my competitors included — decided to pause their marketing when shutdowns hit in Spring 2020.

    But not us. My business, PostcardMania, continued marketing without interruption. This allowed us to increase leads by 9.24% in the six months following May 1, 2020, averaging an extra 186 leads per week without increasing budget. From there, earnings ended up nearly 10%, and we added 30 new jobs overall that year.

    With marketing mail down nationwide, you have an opportunity to capture market share from your competitors. It’s the least crowded marketing channel right now, and it’s likely to stay that way with an election year coming up and political ad spend shifting toward TV and digital. In fact, political ad experts are predicting political direct mail spend will decline dramatically to a 9.2% share of all spending in 2024, down from 22.8% in 2019.

    With fewer print advertisements in Americans’ mailboxes, you’ll have less competition to make a lasting impression on prospects.

    Related: Direct Mail Marketing Strategies to Target Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z

    Digital engagement rates have dropped while the recall rate of direct mail messages is 70% better

    Evidence shows that digital fatigue caused by surfing the web and browsing social media is at an all-time high. Recent reports show a steady decline in engagement on Instagram, Facebook and X (formerly known as Twitter). Instagram engagement dropped from 1.22% in 2019 to .47% in 2022; Facebook engagement dropped from .09% in 2019 to .06% in 2022; and X engagement dropped from .045% in 2019 to .035% in 2022.

    Attention spans are also declining. According to a study by Microsoft in 2015, since the year 2000, attention spans have dropped from 12 seconds to 8 seconds on average. Another study in 2022 found that, among consumers, Generation Z reportedly has a 1.3-second attention span — the lowest of all age groups.

    So, not only are people more easily tuning out digital advertisements, but any attention they do spare is in tiny increments.

    The benefit of direct mail is its very nature. People look at their mail when they have the time and energy, which means they’re more open to receiving your message. It also naturally takes more time to process mail than simply scrolling by a digital ad, so prospects are more likely to remember you.

    In fact, research shows that direct mail has an average engagement rate of 95% and is interacted with at least four times at home. Other studies demonstrate that a whopping 31% of all mail items were still at home a month after they were delivered.

    Even more significantly, scientific studies show that people recall direct mail advertisements better than digital ones. In a test that compared the impact of similar direct mail and digital media marketing campaigns, participants’ recall was 70% higher when they were exposed to direct mail versus a digital ad, which had a recall of only 44%.

    Bottom line? People pay more meaningful attention to a message that arrives in the mail and are much more likely to remember it long after.

    Related: The Growing Risks of Digital Advertising, and How Brands are Fighting Back

    Direct mail has become smarter, more targeted and highly affordable

    While the USPS has seen a decline in marketing mail volume, my company has experienced the opposite. We’ve been hitting our highest numbers, even better than before the pandemic.

    In 2017, we mailed 41,512,130 pieces of mail, and this increased to 151,890,493 pieces in 2022 — a jump of 265%.

    Leading our growth charge in recent years is PCM Integrations, the division that oversees technology-driven partnerships and direct mail automation. Businesses can automatically mail postcards or letters to prospects at lightning speed based on various triggers like spending behaviors, abandoned shopping carts, birthdays and much more.

    Businesses can access this technology at a lower price point compared to traditional direct mail, utilize endless programmatic targeting options and employ responsive lead nurturing — all at scale.

    So, not only is there less competition in today’s mailbox, the technology used to get your message there has grown leaps and bounds. Today’s savviest marketers have jumped on this trend to make the most of their budgets. That’s why it’s the fastest-growing segment in direct mail today.

    Give direct mail marketing a shot — especially direct mail automation — and you’ll steal the show like Left Shark at halftime.

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    Joy Gendusa

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  • A Beginner’s Guide to Direct Mail Automation and Retargeting | Entrepreneur

    A Beginner’s Guide to Direct Mail Automation and Retargeting | Entrepreneur

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    Automation has made many aspects of our lives easier, both professionally and personally. If you’ve ever used dictation to send a text or have separate “home” and “away” settings on your smart doorbell, you’ve likely benefited from automation.

    When most people think of automation, they think digital. But automation has evolved to help us in the offline world, where its effects can be felt all the more keenly.

    Case in point: Research shows that direct mail messaging has a deeper, more significant impact on our emotions than digital alone, resulting in stronger recall a full week later. Participants in the same study also demonstrated more neurological activity when interacting with direct mail versus online-based ads.

    Translation? Humans are hard-wired to respond to tangible — as opposed to digital — stimulation. Leveraging it at key points in your marketing and sales funnel could be the key to unlocking untapped revenue.

    Not only do I use direct mail automation in my own business, but I’ve also mailed 23.2 million automated mail pieces on behalf of clients nationwide, so I know what it takes to create and run a successful campaign. Here are some basics to get you started on the right foot …

    Related: How to Enhance Business Automation and Unlock New Levels of Operational Efficiency

    What is direct mail automation, and what can I do with it?

    Direct mail automation is a technology that automatically prints and mails postcards, letters or other offline material based on a pre-programmed trigger. It also goes by the names “triggered mail” or “programmatic direct mail.”

    Triggers can be programmed from your website, CRM (customer relationship management system), or a third-party source like Zapier, and these triggers can be based on behavior, data or timing — or any combination thereof. Contact details aren’t even required in some cases; the automation handles that for you while protecting everyone’s privacy.

    Some examples of direct mail automation:

    Ecommerce retailers can target browsers that abandon their shopping carts. The next day, those shoppers receive a postcard from you with a 15% off promotion to nudge them back online to finish their purchase. You can also target all website visitors regardless of whether your website has a shopping cart or not, though I suggest targeting people who spend at least 30 seconds on your site. This is usually called “direct mail retargeting” and works just like digital retargeting, but offline.

    A moving and storage company could target homeowners whose homes were just placed under contract. Even inaction could trigger a mailer. Let’s say that as soon as a customer hits the 3-month mark of inactivity, they get a postcard in the mail to remind them to give you a call or make a purchase.

    There are so many ways you can take advantage of this technology to bring in more leads and keep your current customers engaged. I recommend you analyze your customer base and existing funnel and ask yourself a few things. Are there any noticeable commonalities among my customers that I can take advantage of? Is there any point in my funnel where a large number of people drop out? These places are likely prime opportunities to add direct mail automation.

    Related: 3 Ways Technology Helps You Make Money With Direct Mail Marketing

    How does direct mail automation work?

    I don’t want to get too technical because, if you ask me, it isn’t how direct mail automation works that’s important — it’s more about what it can do for your business.

    That said, most people still want to get a little peek under the hood to see how the magic happens.

    Automated direct mail is possible thanks to something called an API, which stands for Application Programming Interface. In plain English, an API is basically how one software program talks to another software program, a bit like a translator.

    With direct mail automation, you’re telling a software program what to do. For example: When someone spends more than 30 seconds on my website, send this postcard. If someone calls me once and we don’t speak again for a week, send this other postcard.

    From there, the software connected to your website (if you want to target visitors) or your CRM (if you want to target one-time callers) needs to be able to speak directly to the software that will trigger your mailing. This is where the API comes in — it makes it possible for your website to tell a printing press what to mail and who to mail it to. It’s just following your directions!

    Automation allows you to do the work of setting up the marketing one time, and then you can let it run on auto for as long as you like.

    If only 20 people visit your website a month, then you only have to pay for 20 postcards. If you’re concerned about sending out too many cards a month and overextending your budget, you can also set up limits. So, if you can only afford to mail 500 cards a month, then once the system registers you’ve hit your 500th card, it will stop mailing.

    Probably the most important benefit of triggered mail is that every mailer is hyper-targeted to the prospect you want to convert. In many cases, the recipients are warm leads who have already shown some kind of interest in your products or services — now you can strike while the iron is hot without lifting a finger.

    Related: The Big Risks You Need to Avoid When Using Marketing Automation

    How do I choose an automated mail provider?

    Not all mail automation providers are the same, so you need to do your research and ask a lot of questions before handing over your credit card.

    The first thing to look for is print quality. Some direct mail automation providers only specialize in the software/API, meaning they don’t actually print anything. Instead, they farm out printing and mailing to a network of providers (often prioritizing lower costs over quality). This can result in a lack of quality control.

    Ideally, you’d want to work with an automation provider that doesn’t outsource the real work to third parties, because if something goes wrong, you’ll need direct support to handle the issue.

    Another thing to be wary of is cost, of course. Some direct mail automation providers will charge “tech fees” on top of the usual costs associated with printing and mailing — this is where they have a chance to generate their own profits, rather than just skimming a little off the top of every mailer. If you’re working directly with a print and mail house, you’ll likely find zero tech fees.

    You also want to consider your options for the design of your mailer. Every direct mail automation provider will allow you to upload your own design, but there are benefits to using a template instead, especially if it’s professionally designed and results-based.

    At my business, PostcardMania, we’ve delivered more than 250,000 direct mail campaigns and mailed more than 2 billion postcards over 25 years in business. That experience has allowed us to fine-tune a design formula that prioritizes real returns. The result is a gallery of industry-specific templates based on designs that have been road-tested to generate calls, clicks and revenue — like this real estate investor who made $70,000 after mailing a little more than 100 automated postcards over the course of a year. Often, a proven design translates to a greater likelihood of bringing in more revenue.

    I’ve often witnessed small business owners throw their money away on low-quality mailers that didn’t live up to their expectations. So, if you invest a little more in an experienced mail provider that is an expert in automation, you’re much more likely to see results.

    What are the steps to start my first direct mail automation campaign?

    Once you’ve shopped around and found the direct mail automation provider you want to work with, you’ll want to set up an account and get started by connecting your account to your website or CRM. Each platform has its own steps and processes you’ll need to complete to make this happen, so I won’t be able to walk you through it step-by-step from here. Hopefully, you’ve chosen a provider that makes it easy to set up your first order and can provide support if needed.

    I suggest testing your connections in a controlled environment all the way through to mailer delivery before turning them loose on your live website or CRM. That way, you’ll be able to test the automation for design, messaging, timing, print quality and more by just paying per mailer. The more mail your automation triggers per week or month, the more your price per piece should go down.

    Once you’re happy with your automation, set a weekly budget and check back often to track the incoming results.

    It shouldn’t be a headache. With this technology in place, you’ll impress customers, get ahead of your competition and foster a growing and thriving business that is attentive to every customer’s needs.

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    Joy Gendusa

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  • Supercharge Your Marketing by Connecting These Technologies | Entrepreneur

    Supercharge Your Marketing by Connecting These Technologies | Entrepreneur

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    Almost every superhero has a sidekick. It’s not that Batman isn’t capable of amazing feats on his own, it’s just that he can accomplish so much more with Robin at his side. Duo do-gooders, or even partners in crime, can be unstoppable together rather than alone. Would Abbot be as funny without Costello? Would Bonnie be able to get away without Clyde?

    Take your pick of combos; it stands true that two are better than one, and the same goes for your marketing!

    At my business, PostcardMania, we have the unique advantage of closely tracking successful client campaigns to determine what made them work — and we delivered just shy of 30,000 campaigns last year … 28,091 to be precise. So, I have some insight into what works and what doesn’t.

    In this article, I’ve picked out a few marketing duos that I know will help supercharge your results.

    Related: Invest in These 5 Technologies to Redefine Your Marketing Efforts

    Website + direct mail

    Business owners used to see their website as a mere host for valuable information about products, services, locations, contact information and more. But today, savvy business owners understand that a website is a valuable tool — it can attract prospects (with good SEO), build trust and (most importantly) convert visitors into qualified leads and customers.

    That said, not every website is as optimized as it could be.

    Your website is a powerful lead-generation engine. All it takes is a little backroom tinkering behind the scenes of your website, and you can turn it into a powerful follow-up tool that targets your most interested — yet unconverted — visitors offline. It’s called direct mail retargeting, and it can turn your website into a huge catalyst for closing sales.

    With a little bit of code and an integration that connects your website to a direct mail automation platform, you can automatically retarget your website visitors with a postcard at their home. Simply set your budget, and let it run on its own (if you’re a little tech-shy, some companies like mine will even set this up for you).

    You can also adjust which visitors you want to target to ensure you’re pursuing the hottest leads. Only mail to visitors who spend more than 30 seconds on your site or only those who add something to their shopping cart and then abandon it — it’s all possible and a lot more.

    And I’m not mentioning direct mail because I happen to sell it. The research shows that tangible advertisements make a greater impact on prospects than digital ones alone.

    In a study done by the United States Postal Service (USPS) and Temple University’s Center for Neural Decision Making, researchers concluded that direct mail has a more significant emotional impact than digital ads, resulting in stronger recall up to one week later. They also found that participants’ brains were more stimulated and participants felt more excited when interacting with direct mail.

    Utilizing direct mail at key points along the buyer’s journey could sway them more significantly than digital interactions alone. Adding a discount code or free offer to your follow-up mailer may just be the extra incentive they need to go from “maybe” to “yes.”

    Even if you start slow, with a small budget and very tight targeting parameters, I encourage you to give retargeted direct mail a try. One of my clients, a real estate investor, let it run in the background for the better part of a year. He didn’t have much website traffic, so he only sent out a little over 100 postcards, which cost him $647 — but he closed a deal off of those 100 mailers that made him $70,000.

    That’s the magic of combining targeted mailers with your website traffic: It’s low-cost, targeted and hugely impactful.

    Related: 3 Ways Technology Helps You Make Money With Direct Mail Marketing

    Geofencing + targeted digital ads

    While geofencing isn’t the newest technology to enter the marketing spectrum, it is improving exponentially day by day. Geofencing creates virtual geographic boundaries around targeted areas, and when someone crosses into one of those areas, it creates a triggered response — your ads will show up while they’re browsing their favorite sites or checking their email.

    For example, a veterinarian could target pet owners who visit local dog parks, pet supermarkets or animal shelters. Or a yoga studio could target people visiting their local health foods store. There are a ton of possibilities.

    Recently, geofencing has become more reliable — meaning you won’t spend money accidentally targeting people who really visited the tire shop next door. And once you’ve targeted enough of the right people, their profiles can be used to target larger lookalike audiences with similar demographics.

    Then, if these prospects click on your geofence-triggered ad and visit your website, they could automatically receive a mailer, too (that is if you have automated direct mail in place like I mentioned in the first section).

    With all of these integrated marketing channels in place, you can create a compelling sales funnel that finds and nurtures new leads into customers on autopilot. That’s the power of automation. All you have to do is set it up once, set your budget and check in periodically to make sure your return on investment (ROI) justifies your costs.

    Soon, prospects will feel they’re seeing you everywhere and have your brand planted firmly in their minds. This powerful recall is exactly what you want the next time they need your product or service.

    Related: 6 Technologies That Will Reshape Marketing In The Next Decade

    AI + content marketing

    Website content can be a major trust builder for your businesses and therefore can play a vital part in turning an interested prospect into a buying customer. But many a business owner has cringed at the thought of writing copy for their website … let alone regularly updating it with blog posts or e-newsletter articles.

    Creating large amounts of content can be a constant challenge for business owners, and I get it. You’re already busy running a business!

    But what I want small business owners to realize is that they have access to many tools — some of them free — that will do 95% of the writing for you.

    Some of the most popular content-driven AI tools include ChatGPT, Jasper, Google’s Bard and Microsoft’s Bing AI.

    You can simply type in a subject and a tone of voice, and the AI will produce copy for you in seconds. Even professional copywriters are trying out AI to produce more content in short amounts of time.

    I suggest trying out an AI tool to write something that will be beneficial to prospects and customers. What do they always ask or want to know about your industry? Do you have a recent case study you want to share? Maybe you can create a page that explains the buying process so prospects know what to expect.

    Focus on creating content that builds trust and removes common barriers you encounter when taking someone from interested to purchasing.

    However, keep in mind that AI can only take you so far. You’ll still need to double-check the copy for accuracy and tailor it to your business’s style, purpose and level of expertise.

    The more content you produce, the more your SEO rankings will improve, the more your prospects and customers will interact with you online, and the more you’ll see long-term results.

    Put all these integrated marketing duos together, and it’s as if you have a host of secret weapons to accomplish your master plans.

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    Joy Gendusa

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