By Brian Roberts | Writer, speaker, and entrepreneur | @mrbrianjroberts
It was February 2014 and I was stuck.
My goal was to get my former fashion accessories brand into Urban Outfitters.
We had just landed several major media features, but the coverage got the attention of everyone but my intended target: their accessories buyers.
Since I couldn’t get them to reach out to me, I had no choice but to reach out to them.
But there was a problem.
Email was much too crowded and it’s impossible to sell fashion over the phone.
Besides, local buyers told me how much they’d get pitched through these mediums, so I needed a different way to reach out that wouldn’t result in me getting lost in the pile.
Then it hit me.
Side step the digital clutter and get personal.
So I hopped on the computer, typed up a letter and ordered several custom postcards and catalogs from PS Print, an online printing company based in California.
Not even a month after I mailed everything, I got a call from a buyer who liked a few styles in the catalog. Shortly after that sit down, my former brand was picked up by Urban.
It was an emotional moment for me. A goal two years in the making, finally achieved.
Who would’ve thought I’d owe that success to snail mail?
According to the US Postal Service, the amount of mail sent annually in the United States declined from 213.1 billion pieces in 2006 to just 154.2 billion pieces in 2015. That’s a 27.6% decline in just 9 years. I bet those numbers have declined even further since 2015.
This means less clutter for people to sort through, and, for us as entrepreneurs, we now have an unprecedented opportunity to get in front -and literally, into the hands of- our ideal prospects. There’s power in that.
Especially when advertising is everywhere and attention is scarce. If you’re looking to reach high level buyers, this old school marketing method still has a lot of power.
So ask yourself, what creative ways can you incorporate direct mail into your marketing?
Did you know that USB Payment Processing owns a marketing company, too? Maryland Local Marketing specializes in social media management, video production, and more.