Direct marketing is a good way to reach consumers on a personal level. As marketers, we can be sure that texts, emails, or direct mail pieces will be received by our audience, rather than a TV commercial or billboard that may not reach them. The biggest issue with direct marketing, however, is that it’s easy to overdo and annoy customers with. There’s nothing more disappointing than checking your email only to find a promotional message from the same company who sent you a similar email yesterday. How often should you directly contact your customers through advertising? And more importantly, how do you keep your audience from clicking the ‘unsubscribe’ link?
Email is arguably the best way to deliver newsletters, promotional offers and coupons, invitations, or just basic information directly to customers because it’s instant, affordable, and measurable. People and opinions differ, especially within different business sectors, so it’s hard to definitively say “customers want x amount of emails per month.” However, according to Marketing Sherpa, consumers prefer direct marketing emails weekly or less frequently. Less than 15% of people prefer daily emails from the brands they subscribe to. It’s also important to note that less than 10% of people want promotional emails less than once every few months, which means that not emailing enough can also be an issue.
SMS (Short Message Service)
More and more companies are using texts to send short bits of information to customers (mostly coupons, because text space is limited). It’s important to be careful with SMS marketing because text messages can become invasive. If my phone chimes and I see I have a new text, I usually stop whatever I’m doing to read it (emails are not opened with as much urgency). SMS should only be used to send out messages with the most value. Frequency all depends on what business you’re in and how often the average customer buys your product. Pizza coupons? Maybe once a week or more, because people who subscribe to text alerts from a pizza place probably eat pizza relatively often. How about coupons for an oil change at an auto service company? Most people only get their oil changed once every few months, so sending a text more than once a month would probably be unnecessary or redundant.
Direct “Actual Mail” Mail
Traditional direct mail includes flyers, postcards, coupons, etc. that are sent directly to consumer homes. This type of marketing tends to be more expensive than other options, so if you choose to use it frequently, expect to drop more than a few bucks. Direct mail should be used on an “as needed” basis, particularly with seasonal products. Bear in mind that the customer response rate on direct mail is low౼ 98% get thrown away without a second thought. Unless your product is in season for a short amount of time or you have a magical, unlimited budget , we generally believe it’s best to keep direct mail practices to a minimum.
The best way to fine tune your direct marketing frequencies is to pay attention to data from the past. Monitor click-through rates, unsubscribes, complaints, and conversion rates during direct marketing campaigns. Most importantly, remember that content should be first priority in all marketing efforts. Creative, relevant, WOW content is the driving force for everything else౼ because really, if your direct marketing is dull and lacks substance, who cares how many times it’s sent out?