Marketing Facts and Figures for Agents: Mail, Digital, and Content

Mail plus Digital is a classic case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, and great content is the driving force of its effectiveness. Mail tells readers about your website and blog and social media and community events and seminars, and digital media reinforces the information in your direct mail. Together these efforts begin relationship building, and that is the bedrock of your success.

Direct Mail

The Data & Marketing Association’s (DMA) most recent survey states that direct mail is seven times more effective than all digital channels combined. Mail is made even more effective with the use of digital; in fact, when direct mail is integrated into a marketing campaign, it boosts ROI by an average of 20% (RMG). Direct mail is totally targeted and reliable. No bounces or fears of losing email services. It costs more than electronic marketing, but the ROI is many, many multiples of all the rest.

Consider the following:

• B2B Marketers, overall, reported 27% ROI from direct mail ads, postcards, and catalogs. Clients of Discover Publications, mailing custom, content-driven 12-page Newspaper style mail report 150%-400%, or higher!
• Direct Mail ROI is 4 times more valuable, on average, than Digital Marketing ROI. With Digital marketing costing about 25% of Direct Mail, 1% of ROI from Direct Mail translates to 4 times more net income than the same 1% ROI from Digital Marketing. Think about it this way: 25% ROI from $1000 spent on Digital equals $1250 received, netting $250. 25% ROI on $4000 spent on Direct Mail equals $5000 received, netting $1000.
• Mail can be easily targeted to the entire Not just subsets using Facebook or an opt-in list.
• All mail, including Marketing, gets a near 100% “inbox” rate and 80% “open” rate (DMA). Without spam filters or gatekeepers

Digital, as you know, is here to say and continually evolving. The three undisputed Digital Marketing essentials for Agents today are Blogging, Social Media, and Email. Consider for a moment a stat released by digital marketing powerhouse Hubspot: businesses who blog with custom, local content get 67% more leads. Let’s presume that this is due largely to its distribution via Social Media and Email Marketing. Think of your blog as your “hub” (it’s how Discover Publication’s publishes and hosts your custom digital content), and Social Media and Email your “channels.”

Social Media
With 68% of US adults on Facebook alone and the negligible hard cost of social media, it behooves any Agent to ignore it – even though good results do take planning and a little time. The key to winning with Social Media is to use it to publish the local content you create for your Blog, Email Marketing, and Direct mail. The more relevant your content, the better your reach – and the better your reach, the higher your engagement. Some Agents use Facebook Advertising to reach large numbers of homeowners in their area, but their engagement rate and results depend entirely on the content they put out.

Email Marketing
According to the DMA, B2B marketers reported an average 122% ROI from email in 2016. Email is comparatively inexpensive and may reach much of your database. A message is 5x more likely to be seen in email than via Facebook (DMA), and email subscribers are 3 times more likely to share your content via social media than visitors from other sources (QuickSprout). It does, however, have very big limitations due to laws and technology intended to mitigate spam and protect privacy. For your Content Marketing emails, choose companies like Discover Pubs who test for formatting, font usage (size and style), red-flag words and phrases, use of color, and a long list of criteria that, if ignored, would cause a huge percentage of bounces that could even lead to blacklisting. Email is so abused by nefarious operators that the regulations and pitfalls have become overwhelming for do-it-yourselfers.

Content is not the necessary evil that some who are forced to trudge wearily through writing marketing messages may opine. No, no, no. Content is its sine qua non, literally “that without which there is nothing.” When you skimp on the quality of your messaging, you skimp on present and future results. Not only is bad content ineffective, it can have a devastating affect on future messaging. Once you disappoint a reader or listener, it’s pretty hard to win them back.

Great Content is Square One of successful marketing.

• 78% of consumers prefer getting to know a company from articles rather than ads (Contentplus)
• 70% of consumers believe that organizations providing custom content are interested in building good relationships with them (CMA)

Content and channel integration is the critical component for making it all work. Choose a system that blends technology with content and Agency-like campaign management, one which is very simple for you as an Agent, but powerful and sophisticated behind the scenes. For more information on Discover Publication’s turn-key Direct Mail and Digital marketing, visit us or call 877-872-3080.