marketing
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Does Direct Marketing Still Work ?
by Robert Zimbro
Direct mail might be less common these days , but it ’ s still a highly effective way to reach customers outside of digital marketing .
What is direct mail marketing ?
n Direct mail marketing is any physical correspondence with your patients or prospective patients .
n Direct mail is a highly useful and engaging marketing format because it allows patients to interact with a physical marketing piece .
Is direct mail marketing still useful ?
While it may seem that the entire world has gone digital , traditional mail still has a solid place in marketing . A 2017 survey showed that direct mail campaigns had a higher return on investment ( ROI ) than both paid search and online display ads .
Further , direct mail ROI was only one percentage point behind social media marketing , the medium with the secondhighest ROI .
There are several reasons why direct mail marketing performs so well .
It ’ s interactive .
One of the reasons direct mail is still used and performs so well is that it is interactive . Patients receive a physical item in the mail . Including a promotional offer or a call to action that requires a patient to do something with the mail , such as bringing it into your office , makes the patient more likely to keep it and look at it more .
It ’ s memorable .
Receiving something in the mail can bring up nostalgic feelings about times where physical mail was the norm , which can spark an emotional response to your mailer . To increase this connection , add personal touches to your marketing materials , like the customer ’ s name or a handwritten signature .
It has a wide demographic .
Depending on your target audience , direct mail can have a bigger reach than digital marketing . If your audience is not on social media or email , direct mail can reach many more patients you may have missed with electronic marketing .
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