AI changes the game — but probably not the way you expect.
Imagine I gave you a million dollars and told you to put an ad in Times Square. You just need to get people to pay attention to it — good luck with that. Most people would walk right past your message. That's what digital marketing increasingly feels like today. Great products aren't the problem — getting noticed is.
And now AI has changed the digital game in unimagined ways. SEO? Someone may need to invent a new meaning for those initials. Talk about disruption — have you tried to Google anything lately? You're not seeing the usual list of possible matches — that list you have tried so long to get to the top of. AI is simplifying your customers' lives by answering their query directly. Or just skip Google and ask whatever AI you happen to have open for a good place to eat.
How about email? Email still has an important place in the marketing mix (this article is arriving by email, after all). But for reaching entirely new prospects, it's becoming increasingly difficult. Not the best place for your next big offer. First, you need to break through a gauntlet of spam blockers and quarantines and pray your prospect doesn't give you a personal purge. Ouch.
But the mail — and I mean the good old US Postal Service variety — looks more indispensable than ever. You can precisely target your audience (thank you AI for making that easier), create highly personalized messages tailored to their needs — and, if you're really good, their intent. (Thank you again, AI.) Be confident that they will receive your message and see it. It is probably the most effective direct channel available today and has consistently provided the highest ROAS in study after study.
Here's what AI can't interrupt: a printed piece with a QR code or personalized URL that takes consumers directly to you. No search results. No competing ads. No algorithm deciding whether you're worthy.
In fact, AI is helping marketers develop better direct mail. In a recent paper by the Winterberry Group, 96% of polled marketers said they used AI to support their direct mail, primarily in improving the accuracy of their direct mail targeting. And more than 80% plan to increase direct mail spending in the coming year. Direct mail is an important part of the mix.
Today's direct mail is also becoming a much more data-driven channel. Precise tracking of mail delivery allows for more accurate attribution — measurement of the precise effectiveness of a campaign channel.
Informed Delivery post-campaign data gives individual-level detail on which consumers are subscribing to the service, opening the Informed Delivery digest emails sent by the Postal Service, and can identify households with multiple individual subscribers.
The increased use of personalized QR codes is another channel for measuring attribution and enhancing the consumer journey with personalized content carrying from the mail piece right to the landing page.
Direct mail is not inexpensive, but competing channels are getting more costly as well — and none have the proven ROI of direct mail.
The proof in all of this is that Marketing Mail volumes have largely leveled, although some declines may reflect a movement toward better targeted mail. Less "spray-and-pray."
Best of all is that magical "Mail Moment" when virtually everyone in the United States takes a minute to see what offers you have sent them today. That is not likely to be disrupted soon.
See it in action: Book a demo.