Whether you’re sending a postcard, newsletter, or magazine, direct mail certainly has its advantages. However, what many don’t understand is that direct mail is most successful as a piece of your marketing strategy, not the whole puzzle. In fact, to garner the most results, there are a few additional steps that need to be considered after sending a direct mail piece.

1. Direct prospects to a landing a page

Your main goal is to capture leads. Each one of your print pieces should have a unique URL (www.yourwebsite.com/postcardpromotion) that directs prospects to a landing page. It’s important to note that sending them to just your homepage won’t cut it. Building a specific landing page will not only help you capture their contact information behind a lead form, but ultimately, determine who is the most interested in your marketing efforts.

2. Create a retargeting campaign

If you can’t capture prospects’ contact information from your landing page—don’t fret! This is where retargeting comes into play. To many, retargeting may seem like a beast that can’t be tamed. But with a little knowledge and assistance from your web master, it can be an extremely effective tool. In layman’s terms, retargeting is a way continue advertising to people that visited your website even when they are on other sites. If you’ve ever seen an ad on Facebook for shoes right after you searched for them on Amazon, you’ve been retargeted.

To get started, you’ll first want to choose your ad platform. Common options are Facebook ads, Google’s display network, or AdRoll. Each platform will have its own tracking code, so focusing on one to start is best.

Once you’ve signed up for one of those services, you’ll want to email your web master to install a tracking code that’s placed into the header file of your website—these are the cookies that will follow visitors around on the web.

Once the code is installed, you can begin to set up a retargeting campaign on your end. You can now build an audience of prospects who have visited your landing page in the last X-amount of days, and determine how long you want to hit them with your messaging.

3. Keep your design consistent

While the technical side of retargeting is important, determining what type of creative to incorporate in the messaging can ultimately make or break your campaign. The good news is that you know what appealed to the prospect in the first place. Whether it was a catchy phrase or compelling image, it’s best that your campaign is a continuation of your original design. This is going to continue the buyer’s journey for prospects, and ultimately help them take the next step.

At the end of the day, direct mail is a great way to get your prospects interested in your services because mail still stands out more than most advertising online. However, to grow your pipeline, your efforts must extend further than the mailbox.

If you’re interested in learning more on retargeting, sign up for our ReminderMinute newsletter for new articles each week where we’ll continue to dive into the mechanics of setting this up for your marketing.

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