We are approaching a time that is special for all holiday lovers. People start rushing to find the best gifts for their dear ones and prepare for celebrations. Yet it’s not only consumers; retailers and e-commerce businesses are also super-busy. They implement Black Friday direct sales ideas to grasp customers' attention with a personalized offer and make them convert.

Since the competition for holiday buyers is high, brands need to stand out. Traditional marketing channels, like email or social media, yield great results but lack uniqueness. Another email with Christmas or Black Friday direct sales ideas won’t give a personal touch. That’s why you should use alternative means of communication, including automated direct mail.

An automated direct mail marketing strategy tailored to winter holidays allows bonding with consumers. Personalized postcards with a greeting or free gift cards show that you care about a specific customer and boost loyalty. Such potential customers become more likely to visit your website or store to place an order.

Learn more about implementing a direct mail marketing strategy and get some holiday marketing ideas now.

Read What is Direct Mail Marketing Automation and How It Works

Peculiarities of Holiday Marketing

The holiday season is not like any other season when it comes to sales and promotions. People buy more than ever. They don’t hesitate to spend lots of money on emotional purchases or to get something their family members dearly want. Brands take these behavioral patterns into account to better tailor their marketing strategy.

If you want to make Christmas and Black Friday sales successful, you should also mind the peculiarities of holiday marketing. Here are the main ones:

• Loyalty marketing works. During holidays, consumers usually buy from brands they love. So don’t forget about targeting your loyal customers.
• The feeling of urgency is stronger. 91% of buyers make holidays purchases at the last minute. Therefore, your task is to guide their choice.
• People spend large but limited amounts. This year, consumers will spend over $1 trillion during holidays in the US only. At the same time, 66% of buyers want gifts that don’t exceed $50. It means you should focus holiday marketing on quick sales and affordable products.
• Offline interactions generate great results. 33% of holiday consumers want the pick-up in-store delivery for goods purchased online. Despite the growing impact of online, you should keep interacting with buyers in real life.
• Cross-channel marketing is essential. To engage many potential customers quickly, you need to interact with them through multiple channels, including personalized direct mail.
  

These tendencies show that holidays are a fruitful but challenging period for any brand. Still, if you consider them building your marketing strategy, you will engage the desired target audience. The holiday trends also prove that a direct mail marketing strategy and offline interactions matter. Hence, you should include automated direct mail into your cross-channel campaigns as well.

Automated Direct Mail as a Part of Your Holiday Marketing Strategy

Automated direct mail allows you to win the holiday season marketing race. Mail campaigns are good to greet loyal customers on holidays and remind them about your brand. They are also effective for sending product catalogs with special offers or offline interactions in cross-channel campaigns.

So how can sending personal direct mail work as a part of your holiday marketing strategy?

Automated direct mail is a marketing automation strategy based on trigger-based delivery of personalized mailings. These are postcards, flyers, notifications, documents, and other print communications. They include custom content and are automatically sent to customers at the right moment. For example, if a person abandons a cart, the connected automated direct mail software receives a signal to send them a print reminder or discount in two days. To synchronize the actions of automated direct mail software with customer behavior or events, you need to integrate it with additional tools. It may be a CRM system or a marketing platform, for example.

Despite the effectiveness of a holiday direct mail marketing strategy, you shouldn't use it as a standalone solution. Automated direct mail is the most effective when included in a cross-channel campaign. You can combine your direct mail marketing strategy with emails, social media, offline and online ads. It's relevant at every stage of the customer lifecycle, from awareness to loyalty.

You only need to decide when to power other marketing interactions with direct mail and find appropriate software for it. Inkit offers the Send product for direct mail automation and personalized mailing campaigns. Inkit’s platform also supports automated PDF document generation for print and address verification, which opens up additional automation opportunities.

Read 5-Step Direct Mail Guide for step-by-step instructions

Black Friday Direct Sales Ideas and Other Automated Direct Mail Tips

Now that you know the tech part of the direct mail marketing strategy, it’s time to be creative. Automated direct mail is an opportunity to realize your Cyber Monday, New Year, Christmas, and Black Friday direct sales ideas. These tips will help you with marketing and guide how to implement automated direct mail right.

Automated Direct Mail Marketing Strategy Tips

• Make mailings personalized. Customize postcards by adding the recipient’s name like you do when sending an email. You can also add a unique call-to-action or offer. But remember to obtain data processing consent before using the personal information of customers.
• Avoid offering your products or services in every mailing, especially during holidays. A Wish-You-Merry-Christmas postcard may promote your brand more successfully than the picture of your products. Holidays are a wonderful occasion to go informal.
• Align the direct mail marketing strategy with other marketing efforts. Before printing and mailing something, you should know when to use it. It’s also necessary to follow the same style of design and messages in all your marketing materials.

Automated Direct Mail Implementation Tips

• Check the integration capabilities of the automated direct mail software before choosing it. To fully automate your direct mail marketing strategy, the printing and mailing software must support broad integrations. Make sure it connects with the CRM, marketing, and analytics apps you use.
• Verify address data before implementing the direct mail marketing strategy. The efficiency of sending direct mail depends on the accuracy of addresses. Hence, you need to adopt automated address verification to make address records reliable. Address verification software will match your existing database with official USPS records to detect discrepancies and deliverability.
  

Follow these tips in your direct mail marketing strategy to run an effective cross-channel holiday campaign. Integrated software will automatically deliver the right piece of mail to the right people. Such personalized experiences increase the open rates and make consumers more likely to convert.

Inkit Send for Automated Direct Mail and More

Inkit is a reach enablement platform that offers the Send product for automating your direct mail marketing strategy. It’s a tool that automatically prints custom mail and sends it to selected recipients. Send integrates with dozens of marketing and analytics tools popular among online businesses. It also enables you to scale the volume of custom mailings, which is very convenient during holidays. You can use it for regular communications over the year and launch large-scale holiday mailing campaigns.

Learn more about the Send features and schedule the demo here.