As children, getting something addressed to us in the post was the best thing ever. Yet, somewhere along the way (around the same time we started getting our own bills, actually), this gleeful naivety turned into a slow-burning annoyance whenever yet another dubious letter lands in our letterboxes, and a somewhat-abrupt transition into communicating solely via email.

To many, email marketing is a far more sensible approach; it saves the trees (to a point, anyway), costs are lower, and the only real limit to your audience is the size of your send list.

And we'll often agree. Without careful planning and appropriate execution, postal can be expensive, restrictive, and disappointing when the floods of responses don't come pouring in despite your hard work.

But if done right, postal can be a truly magical thing. Postal has the exclusivity that email doesn’t; from the hand-written signature, biro smudges and all, to the carefully-curated design that'd make any email marketer jealous, it's hard to forget that someone stuffed, stamped, and posted that piece of post just for you.

Still not convinced? Here's some sure-fire stats from a recent Royal Mail survey:

• 63% of responders take your marketing message more seriously

• 57% say postal marketing makes them feel valued

• 55% say direct mail gives them a better impression of a company

• 80% say they can remember advertising post sent to them in the last four weeks

And, incredibly fittingly to aid a swift introduction to my main point:

Marketing campaigns that include mail are 27% more likely to deliver top-ranking sales performance than campaigns that don't (and 51% prefer receiving both direct mail and email in combination).

So, now that you're all statisticsed-out, you're probably thinking "Yes! Great! Post! …But how are we going to afford all of this? And how can we make our postal stand out from everyone else's?"

Well, you've come to the right place… introducing Pigeon Hole!

We get your message from their screens to their pigeon hole in a matter of days

Imagine if you sent Mr. Joe Bloggs, a geology teacher, an email showing off your new geology software. He visits your website and adds it to his basket, but never checks out. Two days later, he receives a little card, personally addressed, saying you've set up the code "JOEROCKS"* for a 10% discount on the software.

Or, he browses your event page that you linked to in your email, but he doesn't buy a ticket. How impressed, and flattered, would he be if he found a hand-written invitation lying in his pigeon hole personally inviting him to your event?

Whatever your message, Pigeon Hole can make sure it really hits home (or rather, pigeon hole) by retargeting the right people at exactly the right moment. We'll see exactly who's done what, and when, then rush off to our postal room and put together a truly bespoke piece of direct mail - all designed, printed, and posted by us, of course!

*Literally rocks, because he's a geology teacher.

We understand you aren't made of money and want a better return on investment

The most common mistake we see during postal is those who value the size of the send list more than the quality of the campaign. Cutting content costs means clients have the money to send their campaign out to more people, in theory expecting to see a greater response rate.

In actuality, they're unknowingly sticking the knife in their own back; the more education staff you send your campaign to, the more generic you'll have to make the content, and the less relevant it'll be to each individual teacher. If it's not relevant, chances are they'll throw it away. Plus, if you're scrimping on quality, your campaign will lack that ever-important, sale-clinching pizazz.

Limiting the size of the send list, and only retargeting those who've already shown interest in your brand, removes any chance that the recipient isn't at least somewhat onboard with your product- or has no clue who you are in the first place. In fact, you can stop thinking about the size of your send list altogether; of course, you'll have an estimate of how many people you'd like to reach, but we'll only be sending post to those whose interest has already been categorically piqued. It's that simple.

What does that mean for you? Well, you won't have to factor in wasted letters into your budget; you won't have to worry that your postal isn't reaching the right people; and you don't have to waste precious paper space describing your product, because the recipient is already on your wavelength, leaving you space to get really creative.

We put the finishing touches to your entire email campaign

If you cast your mind back to the statistic from earlier, you'll remember that you're nearly 30% more likely to achieve your target sales if you include postal as part of your campaign than if you don't.

But it's no use even thinking about those impressive numbers if your mailings and your emails don't fit together like that satisfying click of a LEGO brick. Sure, one company may be able to provide you with a great email campaign, and another may knock your direct mailings out of the ballpark, but passing your campaign from company to company will inevitably lead to vital information getting lost in transit, contradictory marketing tactics that let your message fall flat, and other discrepancies within your campaign as a whole that could appear dishonest, confusing, and incomplete.

By letting our team take care of your entire campaign from start to finish, every speck of your campaign will be accounted for; nothing will get forgotten, overlooked, or contradict itself, and your emails, social, and direct mail will go hand-in-hand so seamlessly that you'll question why you never considered this approach until now.

Oh, and we'll do your entire postal package for a competitively affordable, spreadable, cost-effective fee, too, including:

• Programmatic strategy plan

• Daily management

• Design and print

• Envelopes and postage

• List creation, fulfilment, and dispatch

Meaning you and your bank account can rest assured knowing that your entire postal campaign has been taken care of, without you even lifting a finger, with a price that'll barely make a dent in your marketing fund.

So, instead of going postal the next time your campaign doesn't do as well as you'd hoped, it's time to, well, go postal using Pigeon Hole, and consider how direct mailing could be just the thing you need to take your edu-marketing message to the next level.

To discuss pricing options, or find out more about Pigeon Hole, get in touch with us through our website.

Tags
Education Database Emailing Teachers Marketing to Schools Post to UK Schools

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