The Long-Term Game: Building Deeper Brand Loyalty and Engagement Through Direct Mail Marketing

With the internet in our pockets at all times and social media news feeds addicting us to scroll up to 4.8 hours a day, we're exposed to an always-on battle of competing brands fighting for our attention. As consumers are presented with more choices than ever, brand loyalty rapidly diminishes. In fact, according to a 2023 SAP Emarsys Customer Loyalty Index, the U.S. experienced a 14 percent decline in customer loyalty, plunging from 79 percent in 2022 to 68 percent in 2023. This is a serious problem. As it becomes harder to convert new customers, loyalty has never been more important. But if the same digital and social channels are not delivering on their own, it’s time to think outside the digital box.

Many savvy brands have successfully mitigated this risk by introducing high engagement channels to their media mixes. Direct mail is one of the most impactful channels delivering — not only consistently strong return on ad spend, but also standout incremental revenue. It’s extremely scalable, reaching over 280 million shoppers, too. Let’s explore the why and how.

Infusing Creativity and Cross-Channel Collaboration

In the digital era, brands are harnessing creativity and cross-channel collaboration to benefit from the best of both digital and IRL marketing, building stronger bonds with consumers. Social media is a proven platform to introduce new trends and influence consumption patterns, presenting a dynamic channel to engage in near real time with consumers around constantly changing topics.

For example, Anthropologie and Maybelline quickly leveraged a popular TikTok trend focused on wearing clothes and makeup that would be deemed “demure” in a workplace setting. With the word rising in popularity on the app, the brands developed content and products that resonated with the trend's popularity.

Social feeds are great for quick hits and fleeting high-frequency content. However, messages shared on these platforms are soon forgotten. It’s a cluttered channel filled with equally fleeting messages from every one of your direct competitors. Imagine opening a retail location and inviting all of your competitors to stand outside shouting promotions to your customers right before they enter and exit. You would need other methods for retaining those customers who walked into your store. This is exactly what happens when relying solely on social media feeds.

This is where tangible, longer-lasting media like direct mail marketing becomes valuable. Delivering higher recall rates and yielding an average 10-30 times higher response rate compared to digital ad formats, it’s easy to see how consumers engage and consume direct mail ads differently than digital. Engaging with your prospects and customers through more thoughtful channels has proven to make them feel valued and connected to your brand. Additionally, brands can further personalize with unique messages tailored to specific audience segments increasing the consumer and brand connection.

Measurement-Driven Decision-Making

How do we know direct mail offers such meaningful engagement? That’s easy; it’s measurable. Direct mail leads the way with the cleanest deterministic measurement available. This means a brand always has direct access to the measurable value the channel is delivering. This leads to rapid optimization enabling informed decisions and aligning strategic choices with marketing goals. Data-driven insights empower brands to evaluate program effectiveness, pinpoint valuable customers, and customize marketing campaigns. This can lead to improved loyalty programs, increased customer engagement, and enhanced business outcomes.

A shift towards identity-based addressability leads to more accurate targeting and segmentation, and personalization allows brands to better understand customers and provide them with more relevant experiences, building stronger customer relationships and increasing sales and loyalty.

Testing and Iteration

Better measurement and insights lead to better optimization. Testing, iteration and measurement drive sustained marketing success. It's crucial to strike a balance between leveraging proven strategies that have consistently yielded positive results and actively exploring innovative approaches to capitalize on emerging opportunities. Direct mail allows marketers to refine strategies and deliver personalized experiences by tracking response rates, conversion rates, and customer lifetime value.

USPS data shows 75 percent of millennials believe receiving personal mail makes them feel special. This presents an ideal opportunity for businesses to leverage direct mail marketing this holiday season. By evoking feelings of nostalgia and warmth, brands can establish meaningful connections with this audience during this special time of year.

Look at J.Crew's return to tried-and-true methods of the recent resurgence of its iconic print catalog. The glossy magazine is something that performed well in the mall-shopping heyday and it’s a testament to the enduring power of direct mail marketing. By testing these methods in the modern marketing world, J.Crew is likely to achieve similar positive results, further building brand recognition and reigniting the joy customers felt from receiving this catalog which builds brand loyalty.

If a brand wants to take a page out of J.Crew’s book and test with direct mail, this platform is 100 percent addressable and makes tracking performance easier. It’s as simple as asking, “Was this catalog delivered to the intended consumer’s address?” If the answer is “yes,” you know the ad is being seen by the right person.

As consumer loyalty declines due to an overwhelming array of brand choices, businesses need to prioritize deeper customer experiences. Direct mail marketing offers a strategic opportunity to build brand loyalty by forging personal connections with customers. Through ongoing testing, measurement-driven decision-making, and incorporating creativity and cross-channel collaboration, brands can create engaging and relevant direct mail campaigns that resonate with their target audience, strengthen customer relationships, and foster long-term brand loyalty. As retail marketers continue to innovate and leverage the unique strengths of direct mail, the future of customer engagement looks promising, with retailers positioned to forge lasting relationships with their customers and achieve meaningful business outcomes.

Dave Fink is the founder and CEO of Postie, an all-in-one platform where you can build audiences, set up A/B tests, and deploy direct mail campaigns with the click of a button.