Direct mail has two distinct categories:

• An advertisers’ current customer base/list
• “Prospecting” direct mail; targeting people that don’t have a nexus with the advertiser.

This column will cover selling against “prospecting “direct mail. Based on ad results, this should be the very easiest to sell against.  The average response rate for direct mail is 2%, (can be as low as 1%).

Calculate the number of people your OOH campaign will reach (percent reach X population gives the “persons researched”). You should easily be able to significantly outperform the average response rate given the same ad offer.

Strengths of direct mail advertising:

• Scalable, can be tailored to any budget
• Highly targeted by age, High Household Income, psychographics, geography, etc.
• Very trackable/measurable
• Can deliver robust ad message detail
• Considered to be more memorable than digital/online ads
• More trusted than digital/online ads
• Great Creative platform
• The lists/messages can personalized
• Reaches older, more established demographics
• Can reach “unplugged audience” segment
• Color/images convey emotion
• Proven/accepted direct-response media
• Accepted media for co-op tag advertising

Weaknesses of direct mail advertising:

• Not considered to be an efficient prospecting medium; extremely high cost per thousand ad impressions
• Average response rate only 2%
• Not a mass reach medium
• Consumers can use the Direct Marketing Association national database to “opt out” of direct mail campaigns
• Tends to be a “household” ad medium, not an “individual” ad medium
• Waste: Hard to secure an extremely clean mailing list
• Can be very time consuming to set up and execute
• Requires a lot of lead time
• Some target audiences (IE: some ethnic groups, millennials) don’t use traditional mail channels
• Can’t be real-time. Hard to time a specific date of delivery
• Bad image= junk mail
• Not eco-friendly

How can OOH capitalize on direct mail advertising weaknesses:

• OOH can amplify any direct mail campaign by adding a lot of reach and frequency for proportionately little budget
• Hits an advertiser’s specific target and EVERYONE else in the geography, for the same dollar
• The medium is the message. Research proves consumers believe advertisers using DOOH are: “more relevant”, “more in tune with the times”, “more interesting”
• OOH can convey intense emotion with visuals and ad copy
• OOH is media consumers are migrating “to” and not “from”
• Can’t “opt out” of an OOH ad
• Doesn’t wait to be opened and read
• Can singularly achieve 100 weekly Gross Ratings Points within the market at a low CPM
• Gratifies advertiser’s ego better than any other media
• Highly creative ads create buzz, street talk, and social media posts amplifying the reach at no extra cost
• A powerful co-op ad medium, especially with DOOH
• Can achieve direct-response results equal or better than direct mail
• Reaches target audiences that don’t use traditional mail channels

Next week: Delivering full value for DOOH advertisers

If I can leverage my experience to help you or your company to sell more ooh faster, contact me at kevinjgephart@gmail.com or use the form below.

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