Increasing website traffic is a core component of growing your online business. Most marketers tend to focus solely on digital marketing strategies such as SEO, PPC, email, optimized content creation, and social media marketing.
There’s nothing wrong with that if online marketing is your strong suit.
But there’s a whole other market out there that you could be missing out on if you completely abandon direct mail marketing strategies in favour of strictly digital marketing. If your goal is to expand your customer base, then you should create a well-rounded digital and direct mail marketing strategy for websites.
E-commerce website marketing using direct mail has a lot of complex layers. When it’s properly planned and executed, it can significantly increase your website traffic along with all of your digital marketing efforts. Here are some great tips for driving website traffic with direct mail marketing.
Make Your Customers a Limited Time Offer They Can’t Refuse
Direct mail is an excellent advertising tool that grabs people’s attention. Some would even argue that it’s more effective than sending targeted email or social media ads that people can easily ignore, delete, or scroll past. After all, the first thing people do when they get home at the end of the day is check the mail. It’s like a ritual. While they’re rifling through the mail, they’re more than likely to come across your mailer. As long as it’s enticing and marketed in such a way that appeals to your customers, then it should spark their interest.
Including a special limited time offer for first time or returning customers with a discount code on your direct mail ads is an ingenious strategy to increasing website traffic. This will increase the urgency and get them onto your website a lot faster.
Use a URL That’s Easy to Remember and Type
Before sending out direct mail advertisements, it’s important to double and triple check that your website URL works and that your customers won’t be sent to a broken link or the wrong webpage. After the mailer, your landing page plays an essential role in making a positive impression on your customers, so make sure that they actually make it there. Of course, people can simply Google your business name and find your website that way, but most people are more likely to simply type in the URL that’s printed on your mailer. If they can’t find your website that way, then they’re not likely to continue trying and will simply navigate to a different page.
Give People a Reason to Visit Your Website
Oftentimes, customers need a little bit of a push to visit your website. Giving them an incentive such as a free product sample, a no obligation service trial, access to a seminar, or even a discount code or coupon is a great way to drive more traffic to your website. People are usually more likely to go to a company’s website or click on a link if it means they’ll get something out of it. This is especially an effective strategy to attract more new customers who’ve either never heard of or tried your brand before.
Make Your Visitors Feel At Home
Getting people to your website is one thing—that’s step one to the whole process of driving up your site traffic. The next step is to keep them on your website. Once they’re there, you have to make them feel at home. Design your landing page in such a way that makes it inviting so that it instantly captures and holds the attention of your visitors.
Landing pages should provide all of the information that your visitors are looking for when they visit your website, so be sure to include it. They should also be easy to navigate and direct your customers to the exact offer that led them there in the first place. Don’t make your customers jump through hoops with convoluted marketing videos and images that talk in circles without actually providing any real or useful information or a clear indication of what it is you do. Be clear and completely transparent with your intentions. People value transparency and will respect you more for it.
Include a Clear Call-to-Action
This goes for both your direct mail ads and virtually every page on your website. A well-written call-to-action should provide brief information about your brand, why your customers should support you, and how to get in touch with you. It should also include clear and easy-to-follow directions on how to purchase a product, sign up for a service, or make an appointment. Make sure your call-to-action is short, to the point, and easy to understand so that there’s absolutely no confusion whatsoever.
Use Email Sign-Ups
Integrating your direct mail and digital marketing strategies is an effective method of driving more traffic to your website. One way to accomplish this is through email signups for various digital and in-person events that you’re hosting or products you’re offering. You can offer your customers free downloadable content that will be sent to their emails if they want more information on your brand, products, or services.
Email subscribers can also be sent weekly or monthly e-newsletters, special offers, company news, and other exclusive content to make them feel like more than just another customer.
Personalize the offers and content that you send each customer by asking them to fill out online surveys and questionnaires to get a sense of what their interests are so that you can target specific promotions to them.
Test Various Formats
There are a few different types of direct mail marketing strategies that you can try out to see which ones are the most effective for specific demographics, regions, and customers. Try using self-mailers, envelope packages, or flyers to see which ones yield the most positive results in certain regions without exceeding your advertising and postage budget.
At North American Media, we specialize in creating effective and profitable direct mail marketing strategies for e-commerce websites. Contrary to what a lot of people think, there’s still a lot of value in sending targeted direct mail ads. As long as you have a diverse marketing strategy that perfectly combines both direct mail and digital components, then you can significantly increase your customer outreach, acquisition, and retention all for a low cost. Contact us today to learn more about how you can boost your e-commerce website marketing using direct mail.
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