High Season Fever: Get your customers in the shopping mood with personalised Direct Mail!
Black Friday, Advent, Christmas and other public holidays are ideal for shopping campaigns – no surprise that companies naturally don’t miss out on these lucrative occasions. However, this often leads to potential customers being inundated with a flood of advertising messages for weeks on end, which hardly encourage them to interact or buy. Why?
Because the ads are often irrelevant, impersonal and interchangeable. And that rarely encourages a purchase! This is precisely why the postal channel is a particularly interesting way to stand out during the high season and establish a personal connection with customers. The strategy is simple: First direct mail, then email – by adding personalised direct mail campaigns to your cross-channel marketing. With this you and your customers get into ‘High Season Fever!’ Download our inspiration file now to find lots of practical tips.
High season inspiration file – look forward for the following:
- How to design an engaging direct mail campaign
- How to create the highest possible relevance for your customers with little effort
- 4 ideas for full direct mail power
Consumer behavior on Black Friday 2023 in the DACH region
Due to the loss of purchasing power in 2023, many consumers in Germany waited for Black Friday to make their planned purchases. Almost half of the respondents said they bought products on the bargain day that they normally couldn’t afford. Around 48 percent were also tempted by attractive offers to make spontaneous purchases. Interestingly, more than one in ten people in Germany spent over 500 euros on products. (Source: www.simon-kuchner.de)
According to a study by the retail association, Austrians spent an average of 274 euros on Black Friday 2023. This was a decrease of 8% compared to the previous year. According to an analysis by Blackfridaydeals.ch, online sales on Black Friday 2022 in Switzerland were around 110 million Swiss francs. For Black Friday 2023, online sales of 115 million Swiss francs were forecast.
Overall, the buyers were satisfied with Black Friday 2023. One third of them said the discounts were higher than in 2022. In total, 77 percent were of the opinion that Black Friday is still worthwhile. However, half of the respondents also recognized a downward trend. In particular, the intense advertising is criticized. Many consumers also distrust the stated discounts.
Relevance instead of spam: Direct Mail in Omni-Channel Marketing
Whenever omni-channel is mentioned, most marketers think of the networking of digital communication channels such as email, social media, blogs, and push notifications. These are important marketing channels through which you reach a large part of your customer base, but they are also highly competitive touchpoints. To ensure your brand is not overlooked, it is worth incorporating direct mail, as it offers a decisive competitive advantage.
For direct mail to be worthwhile, both the targeting and the personalisation must be working out. For this, you need the data from all your digital channels and your CRM. Only with a closely networked MarTech setup, where the data from all customer interactions flows together centrally, can you use direct mail meaningfully, efficiently, and profitably in your marketing mix.
(Hyper)personalisation with Direct Mail? Of course!
Programmatic Print enables not only personalisation, but also hyperpersonalisation. Direct mail is no longer the outdated and expensive channel of the past, and impersonal mass mailings have no place in modern dialogue marketing. Today’s direct mail offers much more than just a personalised greeting like “Hello [first name]” or “Dear [Mr./Mrs.] [last name]”. They also contain personalised elements such as product images and recommendations.
Thanks to modern print technology, even small print runs can be sent out cost-effectively and automatically through precise segmentation. The corresponding tools integrate direct mail into your customer journey and turn your direct mail campaigns into a fully-fledged touchpoint and a highly efficient performance channel.
5 creative ideas for your Direct Mail campaigns
To get in touch with your customers and generate an uplift in sales with direct mail, you should start thinking about your marketing strategy for the high season early enough. What do you want to achieve? What do you want to focus on? To give you some inspiration, we have summarised some creative ideas for you. The more creative your direct mail campaign is, the higher the interaction rate will be:
1. The Unboxing Effect: The opening of your Self-Mailer Becomes an experience
The unpacking of things arouses suspense and excitement in people. You can deliberately use this effect in your direct mail campaigns. Through the use of creative tear, fold, and flip techniques, a step-by-step opening can be achieved, which increases the curiosity and excitement about the content. Ideal, as the content is then perceived as a gift.
2. Gold & Glitter: Let your Direct Mail Campaign sparkle
The more spectacular your direct mailing, the greater the impact: With shimmering response elements that can be scratched off, customers are more likely to interact than with plain vanilla designs. At the same time, your direct mail campaign appears more exclusive and high-quality. So why not let customers scratch off the discount code under a layer of gold or paint the recipient’s name silver?
3. The leap into the spotlight of your customers: Pop-Up & 3D Designs
With pop-up and 3D designs, you’re guaranteed to achieve a wow effect! When opened, your message jumps out in three dimensions. First, suspense is built up, then attention is aroused, and finally, the moment of surprise follows. At the same time, you arouse interest and promote interaction with your brand and offers.
4. Personal letter: Cursive font instead of Arial or Times New Roman
Letters in cursive script on exceptional paper with special haptics appear particularly personal. Sensitive messages can be conveyed empathetically this way and often elicit more resonance.
5. Integrate Augmented Reality Elements
Augmented reality elements that involve the smartphone for interaction are suitable for young target groups. This turns the postcard, letter or self-mailer into an interactive object that merges with the mobile device. Straight into the trash? No way!
Not only Black Friday – this special days you should know as well
In addition to Black Friday, there are several similar promotional days celebrated around the world that offer discounts and special offers. Here are some of the best to know:
- Cyber Monday: Takes place the Monday after Black Friday, which focuses on online shopping.
- Singles’ Day (11/11): Originally celebrated in China as an ‘anti-Valentine’s Day’, this day has become one of the biggest shopping events in the world, particularly through the Alibaba platform.
- Prime Day: A promotional day launched by Amazon that offers exclusive deals for Amazon Prime members. The exact date varies, but it usually takes place in July.
- Small Business Saturday: A day of action celebrated on the Saturday after Black Friday that supports small, local businesses.
- Giving Tuesday: The Tuesday after Cyber Monday, which focuses on giving and charitable activities. It’s less about shopping and more about giving back.
- Green Monday: Another online shopping day celebrated on the second Monday in December. It was launched by eBay and is considered one of the best-selling days in online retail before Christmas.
- Boxing Day: In many countries, especially in the UK, Canada and Australia, 26th of December is a major sales day with numerous offers and discounts.
- Super Saturday (or Panic Saturday): The last Saturday before Christmas, when many last-minute shoppers get their presents.
These promotional days offer your customers the opportunity to benefit from special offers and discounts.
