Glen Swyers is Imagine's Director of Marketing Integration. Glen explains how meeting communication preferences is a major component of the modern marketing mix.

Continue reading this blog until the end to learn more about Glen's insightful observations about the environmental benefits of physical postal delivery vs digital copies. Glen will debunk the myth and answer some questions related to RevOps.

Myth: The importance of direct mail differs depending on your age group.

Glen called for a flexible marketing strategy that puts audience preferences ahead of set channels.

He suggested a customized approach for every target group, emphasizing the need to use a variety of communication channels in the total marketing mix and the importance of physical marketing for specific audiences.

He debunked the myth that age is the only factor in direct mail effectiveness.

Glen questioned the belief that younger age groups only react to digital marketing by referencing post office research in which people between 18 and 34 spent more time reading physical mail than some older groups.

According to him, effective marketing considers each target audience's unique tastes and goes beyond age stereotypes.

How can customers, service, marketing, and sales be aligned for an integrated revenue function through innovative methods like direct mail or personal selling in a RevOps strategy?

He highlighted the critical difference between prospecting customers and serving current customers.

Regarding prospecting, first contacts call for different methods and channels than established connections. He stated that greater engagement should only be earned by winning customers’ trust, referencing Seth Godin's permission-based marketing concept.

Research indicates that people are less open to interruptive marketing, such as emails, during first interactions than to physical media, such as direct mail.

But as the connection develops and needs for maintenance and website breakdowns occur, clients happily agree to digital outreach through email blasts, messages, and apps. This emphasizes the significance of avoiding a one-size-fits-all strategy and instead customizing communication methods to specific stages of the client journey.

How does he evaluate the effectiveness of permission-based marketing in RevOps, especially in person-to-person interactions?

Glen talked about how, with Informed Visibility, direct mail has transformed from a black box to a data-driven channel. In the past, few barcodes offered very little data. These days, 64-bit intelligent mail barcodes provide encryption, distinct serial numbers, and comprehensive delivery details. By doing this, additional analytics are unlocked, allowing CRM systems to track specific mail pieces and confirm delivery.

He compared this to the open rate benefit of email, emphasizing that direct mail now provides delivery rate information, which is essential for AB testing to evaluate the effectiveness of messages and response times. He clarified how response time analysis was hampered by the post office's 3–10 day delivery time limit. Informed Visibility resolves this problem and makes it possible to track response times precisely and optimize campaigns by offering precise delivery dates.

The significance of this data is in its ability to eliminate undelivered components from analysis, producing more precise outcomes. Then, he emphasized how Informed Visibility can transform direct mail into a data-driven and measurable marketing channel.

What technological aspect keeps him up at night?

He recognized that the marketing sector faced many obstacles, especially in physical marketing, such as direct mail. The post office is burdened by rising postal costs due to previous underpricing and debt, worsened by rising production expenses such as paper prices.

Furthermore, despite evidence that suggests physical mail can be surprisingly more environmentally friendly than its digital contrast due to the constant energy consumption required for digital storage and maintenance, societal pressures towards going green often push people towards digital alternatives.

He concluded that although direct mail benefits certain audiences, its combined effects of growing expenses and changing societal perception present serious issues for the industry.

Given the pressures from both the social and technological areas, where does he imagine the future?

He stressed the value of having a variety of tools for marketing and is against depending just on one medium, such as email or direct mail. Glen favors employing the appropriate instrument for the customer's needs.

Before selecting any media, compelling messaging and obvious calls to action are essential.

In addition, he emphasized the importance of honoring each person's preferred method of contact and using big data to separate audiences and provide appropriate content through direct mail or email.

Lastly, he identified the need for personalization. He stated that each recipient should receive a unique piece of mail to guarantee relevance and eliminate junk mail by making every piece of mail genuinely relevant to the recipient.

What distinguishes irrelevant mail from junk mail?

Glen stated that junk mail should be distinguished from irrelevant mail, highlighting the significance of relevance to the recipient. Avoid giving unnecessary messages like a baby carriage voucher to a person without children would probably be thrown away was something he stressed avoiding. He suggested using large amounts of digital transaction data to give relevant communications like a pizza coupon to a hungry person.

He emphasized the need to avoid inappropriate mass marketing while acknowledging the difficulty in achieving perfect relevance for marketers.

The blessing and curse of cheap email prices explain that the real cost of pointless emails harms the reputation of brands and the email channel because of digital fatigue.

Marketers should prioritize delivering only important information, even if doing so involves more work and money when using direct mail channels like physical mail.

Is he advocating for a direct mail revolution soon?

He notices that Direct Mail is becoming more and more effective, especially when attracting people to physical locations. Brain scans show that even though digital channels are more popular, Direct Mail's physical quality generates strong feelings. Businesses have successfully used Direct Mail for effective marketing, even during the pandemic, particularly for high-value products with emotional links.

Listen to the full episode here.