Print and Pixels: - Increasing ROI with Direct Mail Retargeting

Print and Pixels:

Increasing ROI with

Direct Mail Retargeting

Print and Pixels: Increasing ROI with Direct Mail Retargeting

Table of Contents

1 Why Retargeting

3 Challenges Impacting the Success of

Today’s Retargeting Strategies

8 How Direct Mail Overcomes These Challenges

15 How Direct Mail Retargeting Works

20 Incorporating Direct Mail Into Your

Retargeting Strategies

23 Summary

Print and Pixels: Increasing ROI with Direct Mail Retargeting

Why Retargeting

It happens all the time

Someone visits your website, browses a few pages, maybe places a few items

in their cart, and then moves on without actually making a purchase. Were

they distracted? Just window shopping?

Cart abandonment is an ongoing pain point for companies in all

sectors. Seven out of ten carts are abandoned, leaving nearly $18

billion in sales on the table each year.

Re-engaging customers to

complete their purchase has made retargeting a central component of

today’s marketing programs.

Retail is hardly alone in trying to solve for this issue. Healthcare,

ﬁnancial services, non-proﬁts, and the automotive industry are just

some of the other sectors impacted daily by online visitors who fail to

convert during their visits. Retargeting offers solutions for everyone.

(1) Marketingland.com, Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment At Every Step of the Customer Journey.

Print and Pixels: Increasing ROI with Direct Mail Retargeting 2

A missed opportunity

The majority of today’s retargeting strategies, also referred to as

remarketing, rely on a mix of email and display ads to re-engage the

abandoning individual. These strategies have had success with a

respectable ten to 15 percent conversion rate. However, as email and

display ads each struggle with their own set of challenges, brands are

looking for ways to increase the return on their retargeting activities.

As a result, companies are turning to direct mail.

Increasingly, direct mail is providing a unique opportunity to re-engage

customers on a personal level. With 98 percent of people checking

their mailbox each day and 66 percent of mail being opened,

direct mail not only cuts through the daily advertising clutter but has

been proven to drive digital activity and inﬂuence online purchasing

decisions.

(2) USPS, Mail Moment

Print and Pixels: Increasing ROI with Direct Mail Retargeting 3

Challenges

Impacting the

Success of Today’s

Retargeting

Strategies

As consumers increasingly “window shop”

websites and abandon their carts, retargeting

programs remain a key marketing strategy,

and rightfully so.

While these programs have proven to be

successful, performance has been waning

due to:

 email fatigue

 ad blindness

 increases in ad blocking, and

 the push to address privacy concerns

Print and Pixels: Increasing ROI with Direct Mail Retargeting 4

Too Many Emails

Part of the problem is email overload. With the average

U.S. adult receiving over 100 emails per day, today’s

inbox is overcrowded and extremely competitive.

In fact,

74 percent of people have said they are overwhelmed by

the amount of emails they receive.

To combat this feeling, individuals are increasingly mass

deleting ‘non-essential’ emails or simply opting-out

altogether. Email service providers themselves are also

taking action by using machine learning to determine

which emails to deliver to our inbox based on previous

engagement.

The impact for marketers

By action of your subscribers, intentional or not, and

that of technology designed to make our lives easier, an

increasing number of people who at one time expressed

interest are no longer receiving your messages.

74%

(3) Radicati, Email Statistics Report 2018-2022.

(4) Edison Software, 2017 State of Email Report.

of people are overwhelmed by

the amount of email they receive.

Print and Pixels: Increasing ROI with Direct Mail Retargeting 5

In conjunction with emails, display ads serve as a

cornerstone tactic in today’s retargeting programs.

Like email, this channel is being challenged by its

own share of struggles due to what is now referred to

as ad blindness. Studies show that we’ve become so

accustomed to where ads are placed that our eyes have

learned to ignore:

 content that appears in these locations

 adjacent content, and

 content that merely resembles an ad as well – even if it

is personalized.

What’s more, the increasing usage of pop-ups, takeovers

and auto play videos are driving consumers to take action

to limit the digital ads they’re served. In fact, according

to eMarketer, due to a combination of these intrusive

formats and privacy-invading practices, 25% of U.S.

consumers employ digital ad blockers.

In addition, it’s now possible to mute ads across Google

devices. By accessing Google’s Ad Settings, web users can

see which brands are targeting them with what Google

calls “reminder ads” and block them from doing so.

Add Blindness

and Blocking

(5) eMarketer, Consumer Attitudes on Marketing 2019.

A study by Nielsen, Banner Blindness Revisited:

Users Dodge Ads on Mobile and Desktop, used eye-

tracking to create heat maps that demonstrate how

web viewer’s eyes systematically avoid display ad

placements regardless of how engaged we are with

the core content on the page.

Print and Pixels: Increasing ROI with Direct Mail Retargeting 6

The other side of the coin

While consumers want to receive relevant

advertisements and information, there are growing

concerns about what personal information is collected

and how that information is used.

Third-party cookies

To address these concerns, web browsers have been

restricting the use of third-party tracking cookies in

growing numbers. By 2022 they will be effectively

eliminated as a data gathering tool.

Legislation

Increasingly, legislative action such as GDPR, and the

California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) are being

enacted to give consumers more control over their

personal data and how it is used. These actions will

continue to affect the way companies execute email

and display ad marketing, with a direct impact on the

effectiveness of retargeting strategies as they exist today.

Growing Privacy

Concerns

3 out of 4

U.S. Internet Users

are concerned about how

tech companies are using

their data for commercial

purposes.

Internet Innovation Alliance,

Consumer Data Privacy Concerns

Print and Pixels: Increasing ROI with Direct Mail Retargeting 7

Although behaviors are changing and legislation is

increasing, email remains one of the most effective

modes of communication and it is unlikely that display

ads will go away. However, understanding the challenges

these changing behaviors have created, it is imperative to

look for channels, such as direct mail, that can overcome

these hurdles and complement your overall retargeting

efforts.

1 in 10

U.S. Internet Users

are okay with their data

being used for relevant

ads.

Internet Innovation Alliance,

Consumer Data Privacy Concerns

How Direct Mail

Overcomes These

Challenges

Earlier in our introduction we highlighted

direct mail’s open rate of 66 percent, but did

you know that 84 percent of direct mail is

read for at least one minute?

Compare that to email’s average open rate of 20

to 24 percent and only 44 percent read longer

than 18 seconds. It’s clear that although we live in

a predominately online world, this ofﬂine channel is

driving interest.

To understand how direct mail stands to amplify

today’s retargeting efforts, it’s ﬁrst important to

understand what drives its effectiveness.

8Print and Pixels: Increasing ROI with Direct Mail Retargeting

(6) InfoTrends, Direct Mail: Integral to the Marketing Mix.

(7) Litmus.com, Email Attention Spans Increasing.

Print and Pixels: Increasing ROI with Direct Mail Retargeting 9

It’s Tangible

Engage the sensory cortex

The most notable thing that sets direct mail apart from

digital marketing channels is obvious - its physical

presence. Unlike an email, a social media post or even a

pop-up ad, you can feel and touch a piece of direct mail.

You can hold it in your hands, turn it over, and even

smell it.

In fact, direct mail can engage all ﬁve of our senses,

giving it a distinct advantage over digital channels that

at most engage two senses, sight and sound. Because of

this, direct mail requires 21 percent less effort for our

brains to process than digital messages while yielding

70 percent higher brand recall.

The beneﬁts of direct mail don’t end there. The fact

that you can hold a real piece of mail legitimizes the

content for many people, as indicated in a study by

MarketingSherpa. When asked which type of advertising

channel you trust most when making a purchasing

decision, 76 percent of respondents selected direct mail,

followed by paid search at 61 percent and all other digital

channels cascading down from there.

(8) Canada Post, A Bias for Action - The Neuroscience Behind the Response-

Driving Power of Direct Mail.

(9) MarketingSherpa, Customer Satisfaction Research Study.

76%

of people believe direct mail is

the most trustworthy

information channel when

making a purchasing decision.

76%

Direct Mail

Paid Search

61%

Video Ads

47%

Sponsored

Blog Posts

43%

Social Media

43%

Online

Banner Ads

39%

Online

Pop-up Ads

25%

Print and Pixels: Increasing ROI with Direct Mail Retargeting 10

Extend your reach

Direct mail often earns multiple impressions from

the intended recipient as it is looked at, set aside as a

reminder, then interacted with again. But it also gains

extended reach from other members in the household

whose curiosity drives them to pick it up and read it.

15.5 minutes

Average time spent per

person reading a catelog

or booklet they receive.

47%

of the population

sets catalogs / booklets

aside to read later.

20.3 Days

Average amount of time

catlogs/booklets are kept

on hand.

https://uspsdelivers.com/10-

reasons-why-catelogs-are-a-

marketing-powerhouse/

Print and Pixels: Increasing ROI with Direct Mail Retargeting 11

It Provides Access

It’s becoming increasingly difﬁcult for marketers to cut

through the clutter and reach their targets via digital

channels. Email fatigue is prompting lower engagement

and rising opt-outs. Meanwhile display ad costs are

surging while growing numbers of consumers employ

technology to block these efforts. Direct mail is the only

direct response channel that doesn’t rely on an algorithm

to get in front of your audience.

Email, on the other hand, experiences a delivery rate that

hovers around 80 percent as evolving spam ﬁlters and

deliverability algorithms block legitimate messages from

reaching the inbox.

(10) Return Path, 2017 Deliverability Benchmark Report.

The USPS delivers to 159 million

households and businesses with

a universal service obligation that

ensures delivery to every household

in the US within a dened time frame.

This obligation means a 95

to 99 percent delivery rate,

as opposed to roughly 80

percent for email.

USPS.com

Print and Pixels: Increasing ROI with Direct Mail Retargeting 12

It Drives Engagement

We live in an interconnected world, and today’s

consumers expect brands to communicate with them

across the various channels they use as they go about

their day. The brands that do this effectively see the best

results, and direct mail continues to be a channel that

brands shouldn’t overlook. In fact, campaigns that use

both digital media and direct mail receive 39 % more

attention than their digital-only counterparts.

(12) Canada Post, Connecting For Action

92%

of direct mail recipients report

being driven to digital activity.

87%

were inuenced to make an

online purchase.

Royal Mail MarketResearch, Private Life of Mail

Print and Pixels: Increasing ROI with Direct Mail Retargeting 13

Marketers are accustomed to the simplicity and

breadth of personalization that digital marketing

channels provide. More recently, marketers are

becoming aware of the vast degree to which direct

mail can be personalized with the same relative ease.

Through variable printing, personalization can occur

across copy, offers, and even images. Brands can go

beyond creating one message for larger segments

to instead delivering messages with one-to-one

relevancy by using any combination of:

 demographic

 geographic

 psychographic, and

 behavioristic data.

It Delivers

1:1 Communications

Print and Pixels: Increasing ROI with Direct Mail Retargeting 14

The Whole is Greater Than

the Sum of the Parts

It’s not often that 1+1>2, but that’s what you get when you

pair direct mail with digital marketing channels.

Adding direct mail to digital campaigns not only

increases and diversiﬁes the number of consumer

touchpoints, it engages senses not activated through

digital means, making the interaction more memorable.

Depending on which channel(s) are combined and

which data methodology is employed, marketers can see

impressive increases in responses such as:

 +25-30% with streaming media

 +35% with browser intent

 +50-114% with email

The Combination Effect

The impact of pairing direct mail with digital

campaigns improves on single-media digital

campaigns through:

More emotional

intensity triggered

10%

Higher

brand recall

39%

More time spent

with campaign

elements

“Connecting for Action Study,” Canada Post, September 2016.

15Print and Pixels: Increasing ROI with Direct Mail Retargeting

How Direct Mail

Retargeting Works

Direct mail retargeting works essentially the same as email

and display ad retargeting:

1. Analyze visitor activity to a website or mobile app

2. Segment visitors according to their behavior and your

program objectives, and then

3. Deliver a targeted communication designed to entice them

to come back.

The only difference – you’re using a direct mail piece instead of

an email or a display ad.

High-speed digital printing has completely

changed the game

For many marketers, the mention of direct mail conjures an

arduous process – one that takes weeks, sometimes months to

design, produce and deploy a single campaign. Now, by using

digital design templates and variable printing, marketers can

create and mail in as little as 48 hours from website activity –

with each piece individually tailored to the unique recipient.

Tracking responses is easy. Response rates are measured by

return visits to the website or app as well as through other

marketer-determined ways such as unique offer codes,

personalized URLs, or a speciﬁed toll-free number.

Print and Pixels: Increasing ROI with Direct Mail Retargeting 16

Common Retargeting Programs

Introduced more than ten years ago, today’s

retargeting has grown well beyond converting

abandoned carts, developed to take advantage of

various engagement activities (or non-activity). Here

are some of the most common retargeting programs

and how direct mail plays a role.

Convert abandoned carts

Abandoned cart programs are a common retargeting

strategy. These aren’t limited to retail brands, but any

brand that operates a website where a good or service

can be purchased, applied for, or quoted.

Because of variable printing, marketers can get the

same level of customization they have come to expect

in digital media, using personalized copy and featuring

images of the items the individual expressed interest in

to create a physical reminder of what they left behind.

Browse Intent Retargeting

Website browse retargeting programs aim to re-

engage those who’ve visited your website but didn’t

make a purchase. Following the same strategy as

abandoned carts, use images of the products or

content that was browsed and perhaps coordinating

items, as well.

What if the identity of a website visitor is unknown?

Intelligent data applications, such as reverse IP look-up,

can identify their physical mailing address.

Print and Pixels: Increasing ROI with Direct Mail Retargeting 17

Reactivate lost/lapsed email subscribers

It’s ten times harder to create new interest than to

nurture existing interest. As such, reactivating lost and

lapsed contacts is nearly as important as recovering

abandoned carts.

Direct mail provides another point of access. Using

a lost subscriber’s home address, deliver a physical

communication that references previous purchases or

website activity to grab their attention.

Don’t have their home address? No problem. We can

identify and append address data for the proﬁles where

this information is lacking. Within these capabilities

are many data appending ﬂavors, all of which can be

tailored to your program’s needs.

Attract new customers with location-

based signals

It’s not as easy to attract new customers as it once

was. Not only is there more noise than ever before, but

consumer options have drastically increased, making it

challenging for marketers to connect with prospective

customers.

Location-based signals is one method that can help.

Retarget mobile device owners who have recently

visited your store location (or a competitor’s location),

or complimentary location, or whose household is in a

deﬁned proximity.

Using mobile-carrier data, identify the associated

physical mailing address to then deliver a targeted

communication, such as a delivery coupon to football

game attendees.

Print and Pixels: Increasing ROI with Direct Mail Retargeting 18

Identifying Your Audience

Regardless of which program type – or types – you

can’t retarget an individual if you don’t know who they

are or how to reach them!

Working with data scientists, our prospecting

methodology begins with an assessment of your

existing client data and current marketing approaches.

Are you contacting your lists with the right messaging?

Too often, or not enough?

We identify your most valuable contacts through

proprietary data analysis that looks at a number of

online behaviors.

To achieve the maximum conversion power of direct

mail, we focus on:

 identifying your most likely-to-convert targets

 your best promotional offer, and

 efﬁcient and judicious test campaigns that

employ variable content to ﬁnd the most effective

messaging

There are three methods commonly used to identify a

direct mail retargeting recipient. Each method serves

a different purpose depending on your retargeting

objectives.

Physical address to email address data

append

Do you have a house list of email addresses but no

home address? Appending the physical address to an

email address works exactly as it sounds. Your house

email list is matched up against an aggregated opt-

in list. Where matches occur, the full postal address

is appended to your data ﬁles. Also available are data

hygiene services that will cleanse and update the

mailing addresses you already have on ﬁle.

Print and Pixels: Increasing ROI with Direct Mail Retargeting 19

Anonymous visitor identiﬁcation

Interested in identifying who is coming to your site

but not converting? Use cookie-based or pixel-based

reverse IP appending technology to identify your

anonymous website visitors and match with mailing

address information to send a targeted direct mail

follow-up.

Using the cookie-based method, a code snippet is

placed on your website that reads cookie information

in the browser and then links to the data partner’s

aggregate database to provide identiﬁcation. For

reverse IP identiﬁcation, a cookie-free option, a pixel

is placed on your website that tracks visitors and then

matches the IP address to the residential address. The

pixel can be placed on the entire website or select

pages you’re interested in tracking.

Both methods can be connected to your Google

Analytics account to capture URL, timestamps,

pages visited, etc. to build segments and derive likely

purchase intent.

Location based signals

Looking to acquire new customers? Use mobile device

owner identiﬁcation to target consumers who have

recently visited a store location (or a competitor’s

location), attended an event, or whose household is in

a deﬁned proximity.

With each method, the resulting matches are married

to your hold-out list to eliminate those who don’t ﬁt

your retargeting campaign proﬁle so that you only mail

to those who meet your objectives.

The last thing marketers need is to hunt for and

parse through the myriad of data providers available

today. As an end-to-end direct mail provider, SG360°

has cultivated relationships with many of the top

data aggregators to provide the above audience

identiﬁcation services in concert with the production

of your direct mail retargeting programs.

20Print and Pixels: Increasing ROI with Direct Mail Retargeting

Contrary to popular belief, spinning up a direct

mail campaign doesn’t take an exorbitant amount

of time or effort. In fact, many of the same

technologies that make digital channels efﬁcient

are also used in the creation and deployment of

direct mail.

Just as digital channels can be deployed using

automated triggers, so too can direct mail. Using a

simple API connection to your direct mail provider,

setup trigger campaigns based on a variety of

factors, such as:

 website activity (or inactivity)

 purchase history

 up-sell and ancillary purchase opportunities, and

 personal factors such as location, birthday, life

stage, etc.

Incorporating

Direct Mail Into

Your Retargeting

Strategies

Print and Pixels: Increasing ROI with Direct Mail Retargeting 21

Design Your Campaign

Pre-built templates use automated business rules and

variable data printing to create unlimited layouts within

the same campaign.

In laymen’s terms – you can now create dynamically

rendered one-to-one pieces while on press, without the

extensive creative setup.

Format

Your choice of format will again be driven by your

retargeting objectives.

Postcards

In most cases, a 6” x 4.25” postcard sent ﬁrst class yields

the greatest return on investment.

The quickest to produce, postcards are ideal when time

is of the essence when capitalizing on browse or cart

activity.

3 Elements of an

Effective Direct Mail

Retargeting Piece

An attention-grabbing headline

Many of the phrases used as subject lines

and headlines in your retargeting emails

make great headlines on your direct mail

retargeting piece.

Images representative of the

products browsed or left behind

Images representative of the category of

items the individual expressed interest in are

what really drive retargeting conversions.

Include a strong call to action

The key to converting is a strong, concise

call to action. Offer your best deal currently

available. Use a unique promo code. These

dynamically created codes can be setup for

usage in-store, online or both.

Print and Pixels: Increasing ROI with Direct Mail Retargeting 22

Self Mailers

Self-mailers are direct mail pieces that do not need

an envelope, using glue tabs/strips, wafer seals or pull

strips to keep the piece securely closed during mailing.

The term is used to describe formats that feature

multiple panels created when single or multiple sheets

of unbound paper are folded together.

Self-mailers are a great option when your product has

a longer sales cycle or requires more information to

make a purchasing decision.

Timing

Time is of the essence when it comes to recovering

abandoned carts and the best opportunity to capture

those lost sales is while the products are still fresh in

the individual’s mind. The most effective cadence is to

continue using emails as your ﬁrst touch point, and often

your second in conjunction with display ads.

To maximize results, deliver direct mail as the second

or third touch point in your cadence, perhaps replacing

your lowest performing email. Above all, test distribution

strategies to see what works best for your audience.

Sample Retargeting

Cadence With Direct Mail

Touch 1: Email delivered within 60

minutes of website activity

Touch 2: Email delivered 24 hours after

website activity

Touch 3: Direct mail piece delivered 3

days after website activity

Touch 4: Email delivered 5 days after

website activity

Print and Pixels: Increasing ROI with Direct Mail Retargeting 23

Summary

Retargeting enables you to reach already interested

individuals with highly relevant communications.

While email and display ads will remain essential to

retargeting programs, the challenges facing these

channels are limiting results.

Weaving direct mail into your retargeting strategies

enables you to break through these challenges to deliver

a real-world touch in response to online activity. The

result – increased conversions.

As a leader in producing performance-based direct mail,

SG360°’s goal is to make the creation and distribution of

direct mail seamless and efﬁcient. We meet you where

you are on your marketing journey to create programs

that not only grab attention but drive action.

Our retargeting data services match known and

unknown website visitors to their physical address, while

our high-speed digital print production platform creates

one-to-one communications that are mailed within 48

hours of receiving data. This identiﬁcation and quick-

turn ability capitalizes on existing interest to ultimately

recapture those lost sales.

To learn more about our direct mail retargeting solutions,

visit https://content.sg360.com/direct_mail_retargeting.

Completes Purchase

User

Revisits Website

Retargeting User

Leaves Page

Visits Website

Performance-Driven

Direct Marketing

Solutions

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