As of 2017, 2.9% of U.S. firms are franchises. That doesn’t sound like much at first. But that means almost 740,000 franchise establishments employ 7.9 million people.
As franchise companies fine tune their market reach, they begin to search for more inventive ways to generate consumer leads on both the national and local levels. Although direct mail as a marketing approach is nothing new, its strength in reaching customers continues to grow as a powerful business-building force for franchise organizations and franchisees.
So, how can franchise systems use direct mail to best benefit their brands, both locally and nationally?
Well, with almost three-quarters of the U.S. population on the Internet, it’s certainly tempting to assume that digital advertisements are the most effective form of marketing that your franchise has at its disposal. However when compared side by side, post card mailers for franchises can deliver several key benefits over digital advertising methods:
A postcard mailer elicits a stronger customer response than a digital advertisement.
Direct mail has the potential to attain a 5.1 percent response rate compared to just 2 percent across all digital channels, according to the 2017 DMA Response Rate Report.
Physical advertisements have been proven easier to process than digital text.
According to marketing research firm True Impact, prospective customers need to use about one-fifth less cognitive effort to process the printed text of a postcard mailer versus the digital text of an online advertisement.
Direct mail is significantly more memorable than online advertisements.
True Impact also found that potential customers were able to remember the brand being advertised by a piece of direct mail three-quarters of the time, while digital ads generated only 44 percent brand recall.
As a franchise/franchisee, you will have limited success unless you take local outreach seriously. When you market your franchise, you want to prove that you’re an expert in meeting the needs of local customers.
For companies that are always eager to communicate a key message to their target audience, direct mail produces something tangible for consumers that can be relevant, timely and personalized to the recipient.
Despite how far technology has come in delivering messages to consumers, the U.S. mail continues to stand the test of time.
Considering that Americans look forward to checking their mailboxes every day, direct mail is a powerful investment for franchise companies.