Your traditional, “old school” direct mail program integrated with the emerging world of Connected TV … sound unlikely? Chocolate and peanut butter may not have sounded like a good combination at first either, but the integration of CTV on a 1:1 level with direct mail is proving to be just as tasty for one client.
It started with paid social
Many of our clients today are integrating digital with their direct mail and seeing consistently positive results with paid social. This is a 1:1 integration of paid social with direct mail among known prospects. So we onboard the direct mail file into paid social platforms and run a match rate (which are higher these days).
We then test sequences, timing, buying/bidding models, etc., to create the right “recipe” for each client. This type of People-Based Marketing has proven successful for our clients, leading to a combined CPA lower than direct mail only.
Adding Connected TV to the mix
Recently, we’ve worked with clients to use the same premise, but for CTV platforms including Roku, Apple TV, Sling, Amazon Fire, etc. and streaming services on them like Hulu. This can also be done with streaming audio on platforms like Pandora and Spotify.
There are some technical differences in matching the file to CTV (we found CTV match rates to be even better than paid social), but the concept is similar – the 1:1 integration of CTV timed with the direct mail drop.
The results are meaningful
With one client, we found that direct mail plus paid social led to a 12% lift over direct mail only. And now in a recent test, we found layering on CTV is leading to a 26% lift – not only paying for itself but driving down the overall CPA versus the other two scenarios.
Varying results with display
We’ve tested many channel combinations and we’ve seen mixed results with the integration of display with direct mail. Depending on your situation and desire for scale, it may merit exploration.
Conduct your own test ASAP
You can conduct a low-cost, low-risk test to assess the potential impact of 1:1 digital and CTV on your direct mail program. If direct mail is a core component of your acquisition mix, this would be an easy and worthwhile strategy to test. Let us know if you’d like help and we can just run it for you. ;-}
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I suddenly have a hankering for a Reese’s peanut butter cup.
Comments