Using MailChimp For Direct Mail Postcard Marketing Campaigns

MailChimp Postcards - Direct Mail Marketing Campaigns

When it comes to marketing your business direct mail, done right, is a powerful tool. Today, email DRIP marketing can be one of the most effective ways to drive traffic, increase conversions and generate leads. Automating your email outreach by using a platform like MailChimp can help you to nurture prospects through their buying process by keeping your message top-of-mind using regularly scheduled, targeted and trackable emails, and newsletters. Adding direct mail postcards to your digital efforts can increase the effectiveness of your overall strategy.

MailChimp direct marketing services enable you to get the right advertising and marketing message to the right prospects at the right time. MailChimp services include their email services (newsletters, marketing automation) Facebook and Instagram advertising and direct mail postcards. The ease of using your existing contacts lists to manage all of your marketing outreach is what is most appealing about MailChimps ever-expanding service offerings. Combine this with the seamless integration of Squarespace website forms, Blog RSS to Email option, Marketing Automation, Direct Mail, and the addition of tags, and MailChimp has become a complete direct marketing asset every small business should consider.

Let's take a look at how using MailChimp postcards can provide you with benefits like increased conversions and sales.

The Importance of Direct Mail

Since the Internet age began, experts have been predicting the death of traditional marketing methods. Yet the truth is, while some conventional channels like print advertising have declined in effectiveness and use, direct mail isn't one of them. In fact, direct mail was 57% of total mail volume in 2014, according to the USPS, use is up from 39.9% in 1990. In other words, businesses are still getting value with targeted conventional mail.

And the businesses that are experiencing the best return are those that successfully use direct marketing as part of an integrated traditional/digital marketing strategy and mix. Here are some stats from the Direct Marketing Association Statistical Fact Book.

Spending on direct marketing has stayed consistent for the past five years.
Almost $10 billion was spent on direct marketing in 2015.
Over 14% of the people 45-54 respond to mail pieces, the most likely demographic to respond.

The key is to create a consistent brand image across all of your marketing efforts both traditional and digital. Consistency is what strengthens your overall brand image. This is why MailChimp postcards are so powerful.

Recurring Direct Mail Postcards Are More Effective and Make Things Easier

One of the most challenging elements of traditional channels, in general, is gaining real insight into its effectiveness. Digital marketing is so valuable because, thanks to in-depth data, you can gain a real understanding of your customers and prospects, along with tracking their engagement with your digital assets like blog posts, email and landing pages.

MailChimp's postcards allow you to combine the personal touch of a printed postcard campaign with their powerful data tools. You can use postcards to share promotional codes, announce a live event – like a book signing, or open house, recover abandoned shopping carts on your website, or offer a friendly message that the recipients will want to hold onto.

MailChimp allows you to connect your marketing channels to increase their effectiveness. From designing to sending, you can manage postcards along with all of your other MailChimp marketing efforts.

A postcard campaign helps you to stand out from the competition. And gives customers and prospects something tangible to help connect them with your brand. Postcards can reinforce messages that you've sent through emails, ads and other digital efforts, which makes them a smart addition to your overall multichannel marketing strategy.

Integrating MailChimp Postcards Into Your Marketing Strategy

MailChimp allows you to manage your email list for digital communications, sorting and sending messages to different segments of your audience based on shared location, interests or other demographics. With MailChimp, you can now send a postcard to your contacts, regardless of their email status. You can target your entire list or just one segment, and even if you don't have a physical address in your list, for a small monthly fee, MailChimp's Address Finder can help you reach them.

Address finder checks your list and provides MailChimp with the missing addresses. While Address Finder may not be able to find every address, to ensure that you reach everyone in your target audience start by using a GDPR- friendly signup form to collect and store physical addresses in your list. This will also allow you to obtain consent for sending mail.

MailChimp offers three different types of postcard mailings: one-time send, recurring, and abandoned shopping cart. Each uses the same style of postcard but works a little differently depending on your audience, budget, schedule and other settings.

One Time Send - This is the easiest option. Use it to manually send a single postcard, one time, to the people in your target audience on your list.
Recurring - A recurring campaign automatically sends a postcard to your audience every month, 3-months, or 6-months, depending on the schedule you choose. This option is a great way to raise brand awareness or remind people of a regular event.
Abandoned Cart - If your store is connected to MailChimp, the abandoned cart campaign automatically sends a postcard to customers who add an item to their shopping cart, but fail to complete the purchase within 24 hours.

Creating A Postcard Campaign

Creating a postcard campaign on MailChimp is easy. Send postcards to a single recipient, thousands, or anything in between. To create a postcard campaign merely navigate to the Campaigns page, click Create Campaign, and click Postcard.

Choose one-time send or recurring, enter a campaign name and click Begin. This takes you to the postcard builder where you can choose your budget, select your audience, add your content and send your postcard. It's an intuitive process. Designing your postcard is easy. Navigate to the Content Section of the postcard builder, select Add Content, and choose an image for the front from the content manager.

For the back section enter a Heading and Body, and if you'd like to include a promo code, check the box, create and store the code and you're ready to send it off to print.

Preview your postcard and make sure you're happy with your design and message. Our printer will create your card. Approve your final design, and you're ready to hit Send. It's that easy.

Track Results Using View Report

By navigating to the Reports section and clicking on the name of your campaign you can view a Postcard Campaign Report. Here's what you'll find:

Tracking Tool - Follows your campaign from order to delivery. Tracking stages include order placed, sent to printer, printing complete, mailed and delivered. Delivery status is limited to US recipients.
Status - Matches the tracking tool and includes a timestamp when possible.
Audience - Who you chose to receive your campaign
Total Postcards - This is the number of postcards you sent. If your audience includes recipients outside the US, you'll see a breakdown of US vs. international sends.
Promo Code Uses and Revenue - If your postcard includes a promo code from your connected store, MailChimp will show you the number of times it's been used as well as the total revenue generated from those purchases.

This reporting can make your mail campaign easier to track and manage. All from your MailChimp account.

Here at Means of Production, we rely on MailChimp to handle our clients' email needs. MailChimp postcards are another tool that you can use to increase your brand's reach. By integrating direct marketing postcards through your MailChimp account into your digital marketing strategy, you'll increase your marketing's effectiveness, better define your brand image and increase traffic, conversions and leads.

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About Michael Conway and Means-of-Production

Means-of-Production builds Squarespace websites and writes blogs for built environment firms. Our websites are designed to attract better prospects using blog articles and inbound marketing tactics. We do this with exceptional web design, search engine optimization, landing pages and drip marketing campaigns. Interested in learning more? Click here to view my calendar and schedule a call.