Would you consider a gift from your favorite brand as a nice surprise? Companies sending them also believe so. Over 80% claim that gifts have benefited their relationships with customers and employees. Direct mail cards, welcome packs, holiday gifts, or something as simple as holiday postcards show great marketing results.

Direct mail has the third highest ROI after email and social media marketing. Mailing campaigns generate 29% revenue on investment. It makes brands rethink their marketing approaches and add offline mailing to their digital channels.

The only problem with mailing and gifting campaigns is management. Organizing them is not easy. You need to create a mail design and arrange printing or search for affordable gifts online. It’s time-consuming and causes additional hassle.

This article explains how to boost revenue with direct mail and gifts easily. Find direct mail gift ideas and ways to implement them below.

Why Direct Mail and Gifts Boost Revenue

Direct mail gifts are not the first thing you consider as a solution to generate more revenue. After all, they require additional investment and look like another marketing expense.

Even though you will need to spend on direct mail and gifting campaigns, in the long run, they are profitable. Direct mail promotions and gifts make customers more loyal, build a personal connection with your brand, and boost revenue in many other ways.

Increased Number of Customers

Direct mail is an effective way to reach new people. Consumers who have never heard of your brand are more likely to react to direct mail than to online ads or emails. Besides, by nurturing your existing customers with gifts, you inspire them to bring their friends. It also generates new leads with a high possibility of conversion.

Opportunity to Reach the Leads That Usually Ignore You

Modern consumers open only around 20% of marketing emails. Direct mail has almost a 90% open rate. It means direct mail gifts allow you to engage with customers that don’t convert through other channels. To maximize the response, send direct mail gift cards with a discount or bonus. This way, you will get the revenue from the target audience that has remained inactive before.

Growth of the Average Transaction Size

US customers spend $59 more than the value of direct mail gift cards. Gift cards are usually not enough to make up for everything a customer wants. They only whet the buyer’s appetite and increase the average transaction size. Therefore, direct mail gift cards are a powerful boost to your revenue. They only cover a part of the purchase, and the customer pays the rest.

Enhanced Customer Loyalty

Direct mail marketing and gifting can turn existing customers into brand advocates. A single positive experience (like a gift) makes 77% of customers recommend your brand to a friend. More leads generate more revenue. The customer loyalty enhanced with direct mail also allows you to keep existing customers engaged. The likelihood of repeat purchases significantly grows.

You should know that direct mail gifts work equally well for B2C and B2B businesses. Apart from sending direct mail gift cards to consumers, you can use offline channels to reach C-level executives. Personalized gifts make your brand stand out and show you appreciate the partnership.

Learn How To Make Sure Mail Delivery Doesn’t Fail: A Guide for Businesses

How to Implement Direct Mail Gifts Easily (Step-by-Step)

You can send some gifts manually, of course. Yet, if you need to deliver dozens or hundreds of mailings, it would be counterproductive. Companies usually don’t have a separate employee for such tasks.

That’s why we offer you a step-by-step guide on how to boost revenue with gifts and direct mail ideas. Follow these steps for smooth implementation.

#1. Analyze Data About Your Target Audience

Direct mail and gifting are expensive marketing approaches. You cannot send gifts to all of your prospects. Hence, you need to pick the most promising leads. Marketing analytics software with lead scoring is an optimum way to do that. If you work in B2B, you have a limited number of customers and may be less selective.

#2. Choose the Most Suitable Type of Direct Mail

Pick a type of mailings or gifts based on customer analytics. Now, when you know customers’ age, social status, behavioral patterns, preferences, and other details, you have great chances to meet their expectations. At this point, it’s also crucial to make budget estimates.

#3. Understand What Gifting Services or Mailing Tool You Need

Few providers specialize in both gift sending and personalized mailings. Hence, you have to decide what kind of services you need.

If you focus on direct mail communications like postcards, leaflets, or flyers, choose mailing services. You can even adopt direct mail automation solutions for personalized and trigger-based delivery. Such tools enable you to align offline communications with online events and interactions. For example, you can automatically deliver a print voucher when the buyer makes their fifth purchase. It’s very convenient for medium and large online businesses.

If you want to send gift packs, prefer a gifting service. There are dozens of companies that can choose, pack, and send gifts for you.

#4. Pick the Right Mailing Service

Research what providers are on the market and what they offer. Even though rates matter, you should also mind the services. It’s better to pick a company that enables you to fully automate mailings and minimizes manual processes.

#5. Verify Address Information

It’s a critical step many businesses skip. To ensure your gifts or mailings reach the destination, validate contact details. Address verification services match the address records on your list with official USPS databases to detect inconsistencies. They fix or eliminate bad address data to increase the accuracy of delivery. This way, verification optimizes your marketing efforts and helps to reduce financial losses due to misdeliveries.

#6. Arrange Delivery and Tracking

Decide on what occasions you want to deliver mailings or gifts. It can be anything from the first purchase to staying with your company for several years. If you use a direct mail automation tool like Send, you can include mailings into automated marketing workflows.

After implementing your direct mail gift ideas, be sure to measure the results. Direct mail is very convenient for tracking. Analytics allow you to evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign and the actual return on investment.

Direct Mail Gift Ideas to Consider

Need inspiration and direct mail gift ideas? We know some proven ways to send mailings and gifts that bring revenue. Many brands have already used them and seen measurable results.

• Onboarding direct mail and gifts. When a new customer subscribes to your service or places the first order, send them a greeting card or a welcome gift. But mind that this option may not be suitable when you sell low-price products.
• Event or webinar gifts to increase attendance. If you want to engage more participants, promise them gifts. It’s always great to receive something by mail after an attended event.
• Loyalty mailings. Show loyal customers you value them through mailings. You can send them a birthday postcard, greet them with holidays, or thank them for staying with your company once they reach a specific threshold.
• Cart abandonment postcards. Remarketing postcards are highly effective to return customers and increase revenue. If a customer has been about to place an order but left the cart, remind them about the order and offer a discount by sending a postcard. It may convince them to come back.
• Branded boxes to targeted accounts. Direct mail and gifts are often key components of account-based marketing campaigns. They build a closer connection between a brand and selected customers.
• Upsell direct mail. Let customers know you have other products they can benefit from. Send them leaflets or catalogs with relevant content to boost conversions and sales. Whereas leaflets are more suitable for large-scale marketing campaigns, catalogs are great for targeting specific accounts.
  

Discover Actionable Customer Engagement Strategies for 2022

Direct mailings and gifts are universal, so you can use them anytime. Generally, we recommend sending more expensive mailings to existing customers that have already shown loyalty to your brand. They will yield the best results. For potential leads, you’d better use postcards or flyers.

Inkit Send for Automated Personalized Mailings

Send is a direct mail automation tool for personalized and trigger-based mailings. Connect it to your CRM system through an API to automate offline mail. When a specific event or user action happens, Send automatically initiates mail printing and delivery in real-time. You can send all kinds of mailings to different people.

Learn more about Send features and subscription plans here.