Remarketing With Direct Mail

Remarketing and retargeting are often used interchangeably but there are some important differences.

Here at Stannp we’ve seen and over again how Direct Mail remarketing can deliver fantastic results for our clients; here’s our guide to how it works.

What’s Retargeting?

The statistics vary somewhat depending on the which study you are looking at, but all of the research arrives to the same conclusion; The vast majority of first time visitors to your website (96-98%) leave without taking any action.

That leaves on average just 2-4% of your web traffic completing a useful action (making a purchase, downloading your ebook or guide, etc.)

This is where the idea of retargeting comes in; retargeting is the process of tracking and following those website visitors who haven’t taken an action, and serving them with adverts on other websites they visit, designed to encourage them to re-visit your website.

How Does Retargeting Work?

Retargeting is built on cookies, which are pieces of code dropped by your website into the browser on the device (computer, tablet, phone etc.) of your website visitor.

When that visitor visits other websites your cookie places your banner adverts on those sites, with the intention of encouraging them to ‘click through’ and return to your website.

What’s The Problem With Retargeting?

Smart marketers are finding there are a number of issues with retargeting, and are switching to a more effective and sustainable strategy of postal remarketing to re-engage with people who have recently demonstrated interest in their brand.

There have been a number of changes in legislation and culture in the last few years that mean that display advert retargeting is becoming less and less effective. These changes include;

• Personal Data Legislation; The proliferation of data privacy regulations worldwide (GDPR, CCPA, APEC CBPR, APA etc…) is changing both the way data can be gathered and used online, and the way people think about and expect companies to treat their personal data.
• Intrusion; Banner adverts are often perceived as unwanted and intrusive, following the user around the internet to other websites that are nothing to do with the advertiser. 61% of users report they don’t click banner ads because they don’t want to be interrupted or distracted from the website they are on.
• Spam and Trust Issues; 54% of users don’t trust the banner adverts they see, and 57% are afraid of receiving spam or a virus if they click a banner advert.
• Ad Block Software; The proportion of internet users with ad blocking software has been growing for a number of years; around 30% of all internet users now use Ad blockers. these users won’t see your remarketing ads (and therefore won’t be able to click on them).
• Unviewable ads; The average person is served over 1,700 banner ads per month, but only half of them are ever viewed, for example the ad may appear on a part of the web page that is not actually on screen.
• Click Fraud; The proportion of fraudulent advert clicks (automated clicks from bots etc) has risen steadily every year, with studies showing that currently about one in five clicks on adverts are fraudulent.

All together these changes have decimated the effectiveness of display advert retargeting; When display adverts were first launched in 1994 they had click through rates of over 40%; according to Wordstream the average click-through rate for display ads is now just 0.47%, and other studies measure the rate as low as 0.06%.

This means that for every 10,000 people who see your advert, you can expect that only between 6 and 47 of them will click on that advert to go through to your website.

How Is Remarketing Different?

Both retargeting and remarketing are built on the realisation that it is far easier and more cost effective to nurture existing interest than to try and create new interest.

However, while retargeting is all about serving digital adverts online, Direct Mail remarketing works by collecting user information and then sending those users targeted, relevant direct mail offers in the post.

The different methodology of remarketing also means that you can incorporate additional data sources rather than just dropping digital cookies. For example you might include potential customers you have spoken with on the phone, met at an event, or connected with on social media.

You can also remarket to your previous customers, which is especially useful for reactivating customers who haven’t purchased from you for a while, and you can also use remarketing to ‘up sell’ additional products and services to engaged and spending customers.

According to Invesp it costs 500-1,200% more to acquire a new customer than retain an existing customer, and the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70%, whereas the probability of selling to a new customer is 5-20%. Direct Mail remarketing to your customers is a cost effective way of growing your business.

How Do I Set Up A Remarketing Campaign?

Setting up your Direct Mail remarketing campaign with Stannp is very simple (and don’t forget our friendly and helpful team are just a phone call or email away, and also available on live chat on our website).

1. Gather and/or segment your data, and upload it to your Stannp Account.
2. Decide on the offer you want to send to this group, and upload your creative to your Stannp Account. Don’t forget to include personalisation fields for maximum effectiveness. You can personalise any part of the design including personalised product images, individual calls to action and offer codes, as well as including their name and any other relevant information.
3. Approve and pay for the campaign, and then leave the rest to Stannp! You campaign will be dispatched on your selected date and will start arriving with your recipients 2 days later.
4. Repeat for other customer segments.

Can I Automate My Remarketing?

You certainly can! You can integrate your Stannp account with websites, CRM systems and many other Apps.

We have pre-built integrations for Woocommerce, Magento 1, Magento 2 and Prestashop which are available for anyone to download and use.

We also have a pre-built integration for Zapier; an awesome automation tool that connects your Stannp account to your favorite apps like Gmail, Slack, MailChimp, and over 1,000 more. You can connect two or more apps to automate repetitive tasks without coding or relying on developers to build the integration.

The Stannp platform is built on REST API and allows you use API calls and webhooks to integrate your website, CRM system, database etc. with your Stannp account and trigger personalised direct mail pieces in real time.

Want to see it in action? our 51 second short film is a great example of how API Direct Mail remarketing works for an online retailer;