We often get requests from various direct mail providers to lend small add-ons to direct mail campaigns, using their list data to target those users online. It’s possible, but too often we’re talking about single business locations that want $150 worth of display ads to add to the $500 direct mail campaign they’re running. On a regional or national level, it’s a different story, as usual things become more feasible with larger budgets.

Still though, it’s worth testing if your clients are running enough direct mail; targeting 2,700 people is a waste of everyone’s time. What can be difficult is getting everyone to stop thinking about “addressable”. When your starting point is that of USPS addresses and names, it can be difficult to pull that direct connection out of someone’s hands. Guide them, should they need it, to a place where we don’t care what someone’s name or home address is, because we’re finding them online and pushing them down an online conversion funnel.

What about letting your online ads test messaging and design elements that inform your direct mail designs? Within your direct mail, are you creating vanity URLs to test and learn which designs or messaging gets people to visit your site? You’d normally think of that with email campaigns, but I like testing vanity URLs where the volume permits (small audiences or pools can lend unreliable data).