Though it has gone somewhat out of fashion in today's digital-dominated marketing ecosystem, direct mail remains a powerful and effective channel, particularly for the financial services industry – and it's quietly undergone a digital transformation that allows smart marketers to leverage it for significant impact.
The same data tools and technologies that drive paid ad targeting and outbound prospecting efforts can also support direct mail targeting and segmentation efforts while incorporating mail into a broader omnichannel marketing strategy.
Here are some tips to help you level up your bank's direct mail approach and make your campaigns more effective at driving applications for your business credit card offering:
Leverage precise and accurate targeting
One of the biggest challenges with direct mail marketing in the past was choosing the right recipients to send mail to, particularly for a credit offering. However, thanks to modern digital prospecting tools, finding the right business to reach out to is much easier; marketers no longer have to rely on expensive data brokers and don’t need to employ high-powered analysts to find companies that fit their ideal customer profile.
Instead, they can use tools like Seamless or Zoominfo to identify companies in their industries and the right contact(s) at those companies to send promotional mail to. The data these tools provide also make it easier to segment mail messages and personalize the content of your mail, not unlike the capabilities that exist with email.
Make it easy for recipients to convert
Since the goal of most modern mail campaigns, particularly those for credit cards and similar products, is to get the recipient to take action on a website, it's important to make it as easy as possible for the recipient to get to the website while still looking at the piece of mail.
The two best tools available for this are personalized URLs and QR codes—the latter of which remains underused despite being the easiest option for taking a person from the physical to the digital and the ubiquity of smartphones. Additionally, when using personalized URLs, try to avoid hard-to-type codes at the end of the URL (e.g., PTXDFQ) and instead use something connected to the addressee, like a portion of the targeted business’s name.
In both cases, the recipient should be taken to a dedicated landing page customized for the mail offer. The content on that page should be personalized,, and the associated application form should pre-fill with their information to reduce friction and increase the likelihood of the application process being completed. Using a dedicated landing page also makes it easy to attribute applicants to your mail campaign and measure its success.
Support your mail campaign with digital efforts
Because direct mail campaigns can be costly and time-consuming to launch, supporting them with targeted digital efforts is crucial to maximizing your ROI and increasing the number of applications you receive. These supporting efforts should include sales activities and marketing campaigns that can take advantage of your message being fresh in a prospect’s memory. Options to consider include:
- Digital ad campaigns targeted using the same target list as your mail campaign. These campaigns should start about the same time that the mail is expected to arrive.
- Paid search campaigns on Google targeting your credit card brand make it easier for prospects to find you when they decide to research your offer instead of going straight to the application.
- Sales outreach (phone and email) timed a few days after the expected arrival of the mail.
- Marketing email campaigns timed around the mailing date. Consider emailing your prospects shortly before the mail arrives as well as emailing them after.
Visuals and messages across these campaigns should be consistent to create a unified experience for the prospective customer, which strengthens brand recognition and message retention.
Have the right product to offer
While the above tactics can help improve the effectiveness of your mail campaigns, the most important factor is having the right offer to promote. When it comes to business credit cards, even the best marketing will struggle if the program doesn’t include modern features and functions that consumers have come to expect or doesn’t add any value above their existing card.
At Torpago, we make it easy for banks to launch high-value business credit card programs that incorporate those desired technology features, including full-function mobile apps, spend management features, expense management and receipt processing, and an easy-to-use admin dashboard. Click here to read more about our PoweredBy solution suite, which includes our credit card platform and a range of support services, or request a demo to learn more about how our solutions help banks and credit unions succeed in today’s competitive marketplace.
