Royal Mail: Integration is key

Antony Miller, head of media development at Royal Mail, explains why integrated campaigns are the best way forward …

Nothing sharpens consumers’ focus on their finances like a recession and the current economic slump has made people more cautious about where they spend their hard-earned money.

While the green shoots of recovery are appearing, many economic commentators agree that next year will remain a cautious one for consumers as they continue to make more money-conscious decisions about which products and services they buy. This means that the role of brand loyalty in the decision-making process will continue to suffer.

So while steadfast and reliable consumers have become less predictable in their spending habits, marketers continue to need to react to these changes and deliver the right message to consumers, in the right place and at the right time.

Achieving that all-important cut-through in a crowded marketplace can be even more difficult in a tough economic climate. With less money available, marketers need to become more efficient and even smarter about how they accomplish this. The great challenge is to balance the books and at the same time utilise the myriad new and existing techniques now available to modern-day marketers.

Technological advances such as the internet, mobile phones and social media have been nothing short of revolutionary for the industry and opened up countless new techniques marketers can now use. If applied wisely and precisely, there are many benefits to employing digital techniques and the potential for brands can seem limitless. For example, targeted email campaigns and social media strategies can reach a mass audience in a way previously not possible.

But there is a risk that some marketers could rely too heavily on digital techniques and ignore more traditional methods that have a tried and tested history in reaching out to customers, either as a stand alone activity or as part of an integrated campaign.

Direct mail works well on its own and recent research demonstrated how, when combined with other forms of advertising, can increase the return of a campaign. Media group OMG’s BrandScience study revealed that using direct mail alongside TV, press, outdoor and online advertising, increases ROI when compared to single-media activities. Digital campaigns showed the greatest benefit of combining direct mail with an increase in payback of 62%.

Equally as important is not to fall into the trap of making assumptions about demographic groups and how they would respond to different marketing channels.

Royal Mail research shows that more than half of confident web users prefer to be contacted by a combination of direct mail and online, while half of people were found to rarely, if ever, look or interact with online advertising. But it also revealed further compelling arguments for a combination of email and direct mail, with 84% of people agreeing there is a place for both, and seven in ten (69%) feeling that email is best used for supporting or clarifying the mail they receive.

Younger people, for example, considered to be more au fait with digital technology, don’t necessarily only respond to such techniques. Further Royal Mail research discovered that companies which fail to target 16-to 24-year-olds through the post could be missing out on valuable sales. Some 90% of this demographic open all their post and 71% have responded to the mail they receive. Yet the majority of this group receive less than one piece of branded mail each week. While it is easier to simply target younger people with purely digital marketing techniques, these statistics warn against taking a purely one-dimensional approach.

Direct mail, if delivered to the right people at the right time, is a great way of building relationships with consumers. This can only be a good thing when brand promiscuity is on the rise. Digital techniques are good at complementing direct mail activity by delivering brief, uncomplicated information to a larger audience. The combination of these differing roles can offer great campaign success and, ultimately, increased ROI.

The technological advancements that have transformed the marketing industry have opened up many new routes to market. Nevertheless, it is not a simple case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Tried and tested techniques such as direct mail are still an important and successful way of reaching target audiences. The focus should be on giving people what they want, when they want it and applying the most appropriate techniques to the job at hand.