Often times the largest challenge that people have to overcome in their marketing is establishing trust with their customer. Consumers are smart and they are becoming increasingly suspicious of advertising, so marketing towards people who don’t know your brand can be difficult because, without a solid reputation of integrity, your marketing has to create a sense of trustworthiness on its own.
Direct mail is sometimes considered an outdated marketing channel, despite its consistent, proven results. It turns out that consumers actually trust direct mail advertising over most other channels, including radio, billboard, and all forms of digital advertising. According to a study done by Marketing Sherpa, 76% of consumers answered that they trust direct mail ads when making a purchase decision. For contrast, only 43% trusted social media embedded advertising.
Although it is one of the most trusted marketing channels, it is possible for direct mail to come off as gimmicky and dishonest. If you follow the right steps and keep your audience in mind, you can build credible ethos in your direct mail campaign. Here are some tips for creating mailers that consumers will trust!
Use Real Testimonials
By communicating your sales message through the voice of another consumer, testimonials establish a level of trust with the reader that regular marketing copy can’t. Consumers can sense a fake testimonial and aren’t compelled by a vague one, so make sure that you are using authentic feedback and including all the details. Do your testimonials clearly describe your product/service and how your customer benefitted from doing business with you? Offer discounts or rewards to customers who are willing to give a testimonial and you will be more likely to get detailed positive reviews. Also, always include the name, location, and a photo of the customer. The more the reader knows about the person giving the testimonial, the more their brain will trust the information being provided.
Tell a Story
People easily understand and relate to narratives, and on top of that, they are wary of blatant sales pitch marketing. Utilizing storytelling will make your direct mail ads feel more genuine, personal, and interesting for readers. Tell your company’s story or give an example of a specific time your business went above and beyond for a customer. Even if it’s just part of your mailer, a story opens the reader up to be more trusting of any sales message that follows.
Target and Personalize
One of the great things about direct mail marketing is that you are able to target specific segments of potential customers to receive your advertising. The more specifically your mailer applies to the reader, the more they will trust its message. Consumers want to feel like their mail is catered specially to them, so be precise with your audience targeting to ensure that the people receiving your mailer know why they are being offered your product/service. Another way to establish trust is to personalize your marketing using variable data printing (VDP). We created a guide to VDP that lists some of the most effective uses, but the basic premise of the process is that it allows you to change text and graphics based on data about each individual customer. That means including names, varying bullet points to cater to different target groups, and changing graphics so that each recipient gets a mailer that applies directly to them. Personalized mail gets better response rates because people trust what feels like it made special for them, and they distrust one-size-fits-all marketing.
Include a Guarantee
Guarantees take away some of the risk involved with making a purchase decision, making customers feel secure and showing your confidence in the product. It displays your company’s integrity and eliminates potential customers’ fear that they might get ripped off.
Building trust is so important when marketing to new clients, because with no reputation to rely on you have to focus on creating a sense of honesty within your marketing. People trust direct mail; that’s one of the reasons why it’s been such an effective marketing channel for so long. Use these tips to ensure that you take advantage of consumers’ trust in direct mail and create a campaign that gets big time results. Keep checking in on our blog for more marketing tips, tricks, and guides!
