It’s apparent that direct mail gives brands the opportunity to connect with people in a much deeper and longer-lasting way even in a world flooded with digital experiences.
Why? Because direct mail is real and tactile, personal, and it is much harder to delete than an email or dismiss an online ad. Direct mail can cut through the noise to connect and get noticed!
That said, it comes as no surprise that advances in technology and increasing awareness of environmental implications are bringing about concerns for many businesses. So, the direction marketers are heading in is – can we support sustainable practices while still maintaining the power of direct mail? Sure can!
Through eco-friendly direct mail practices, including sustainable printing and targeting audience awareness, we are able to minimize adverse environmental effects of these practices while continuing to achieve, if not improve, return on investment.
Here at Blue Market Media, we believe environmental responsibility and effective marketing are not mutually exclusive. Here’s how you can green your marketing with sustainable direct mail without sacrificing results.
Why Go Green with Direct Mail?
Choosing sustainable direct mail isn’t just great for the world – it offers an opportunity for business.
Today’s consumers are making more ethical purchasing decisions than they did in the past and are more likely to buy from brands that align with their values. Research has shown that sustainability matters in purchasing decision-making, especially for younger consumers.
So to sum things up, here are three quick reasons to consider sustainable practices when it comes to direct mail:
- Less Waste: Sustainable campaigns utilize less raw materials, and create less waste in landfills.
- Brand Loyalty: If your business can demonstrate that it values environmentally-efficient practices, there will likely be a degree of trust and loyalty from consumers.
- Support Eco-Conscious Consumers: There is a growing percentage of consumers who care about minimizing their impact and are actively looking for businesses that ethically drive their work and that are environmentally friendly.
At the end of the day, being a sustainable direct mailer gives you relevancy and competitiveness in a marketplace that is often changing and, which has expectations that sustainability is not an option, it is a requirement.
Use Sustainable Materials
Reducing your environmental impact can be both simple and influential. One of the easiest and most impactful things that your business can do is utilize greener material options. By just substituting traditional supplies with more sustainable material options lowers the environmental impact with much the same or better professional and quality results.
Examples of Sustainable Options:
- Recycled Paper: Go with paper that is derived from post-consumer waste – substantially limiting the need for virgin pulp and entering into the recycling economy.
- FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) Certified Recycled Paper: The Forest Stewardship Council is the organization that certifies paper from responsible stream sources. With paper sourced from FSC certified stock it gives the impression that your organisation takes responsibility for strict environmental and ethical practices.
- Soy Inks: As soy based inks are renewable, biodegradable, and designed with a reduced amount of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) compared to petroleum based inks, a decrease in VOC can create better breathable air during the printing process.
- Eco-Compostable Packaging: If your campaign may require envelopes, sleeves or other parcel style packing, research compostable options for packaging materials purposefully made to safely decompose without harming the environmental quality.
Optimise Design to Reduce Waste
Design is all about blending creativity with usefulness. Your direct mail campaign can become more sustainable by implementing a few design changes without sacrificing quality or appearance.
In addition, a clean and minimalist design saves resources and may present an easier readability and preferred engagement.
- Simplify Layouts: Reduce the number of colours and graphics printed or reduce the number of separate printed elements.
- Right-Size Your Mailers: Only use the right size to get your message across. No more, no less. Oversize mailers or mailers that are unnecessarily bulky are wasting resources and costing you money in postage.
- Print Doublesided: Use both sides of the page and reduce your consumption by half!
- Avoid Glossy Finishes: Glossy or UV-coated paper can hinder recycling. Stick to matte or uncoated paper stocks to keep your mailers eco-friendly and recyclable.
Reduce Unnecessary Mailings
Sending less mail can allow you to do more. Improving your mailing database and targeting data can allow you to reduce waste and simultaneously increase ROI. The secret ingredient is specificity.
How to Reduce Waste and Increase Results:
- Refine your Mailing List: To reduce waste it’s good practice to eliminate duplicates, independently owned business in your surrounding area, and non-responding leads from past marketing efforts.
- Use Audience Segmentation: Through audience segmentation, marketers can segment their audience and send more tailored content that can be curated towards specific audiences and not a broad/date-based communication. The more aligned and relevant the content, the higher the overall performance and response rates will be.
- Provide ‘opt-out’ communication options: With the context of demonstrating to the recipient a clear and dedicated way to opt-out of any future communications, most importantly this demonstrates consideration for the preference of the consumer and also removes future date-based duplicate or unnecessary mailings.
Integrate Digital Touchpoints
Going green doesn’t mean going entirely offline. In fact, the most effective campaigns often combine direct mail with digital content. This hybrid approach can boost engagement while cutting down on the amount of printed material required.
Smart Digital Integrations:
- QR Codes: Direct users to a product page, video, or digital catalogue without printing multiple pages of information.
- Personalised URLs (PURLs): Give each recipient a customised web experience, increasing engagement while reducing physical page count.
- Email Follow-Ups: Use direct mail as an introduction, followed by email to nurture leads and reinforce the message.
Communicate Your Green Credentials
If your brand chooses to invest in eco-friendly direct mail, don’t forget to celebrate it! Transparency around your sustainability practices builds positive brand perception, but it can also showcase to your customers how to appropriately dispose of or recycle your goods.
You could add the following information:
- An information block about the recycled or FSC paper.
- An icon of recycling or other disposal instructions, if needed.
- A few sentences about your sustainability efforts, or points of reference.
For example, something as simple as “Printed on 100% recycled paper with soy-based inks – we care about the planet,” could go a long way in continuing to develop your brand message.
At Blue Market Media, we partner with brands to provide natural and seamless integrations of these messages in their campaigns. We don’t want them to sound preachy or corporate…
Sustainability Doesn’t Mean Sacrificing Performance
One common misconception regarding eco-friendly direct mail is that it conveys “lower-quality” or “lower-performance”. Nothing is further from the truth. The materials of today and effective planning, sustainable campaigns can be just as impactful or in many ways even more impactful than traditional.
Green mailers tend to pop a bit more with their design, but that is generally because often the clean design and ethical approach is part of what the actual high quality performance is. Second, in our experience greening campaigns tend to resonate positively with customers’ perception and thus lead to enhanced loyalty. Consumers remember and associate value with brands that walk the talk, especially in the area of environmental concerns.
Blue Market Media is proud to help our clients implement marketing activities that support alignment of their marketing and environmental values. Whether you are a small business taking the leap to green marketing or an established brand taking limits to reduce carbon foot print – we want to understand your approach and help support you along your way!
The Future of Direct Mail Is Green
Direct mail as a marketing tactic is not going away; but it is changing. Given the climate crisis, sustainability concerns, and the push for ethical behaviour, marketers must reevaluate their marketing strategies from sustainability. If you are doing sustainable direct mail, you don’t just send a message, you send a statement about who you are, what you value, and how you do business.
Whether it’s the materials you choose to go with, the relevant choices you make around refining your mailing lists, the addition of digital integration, or simply your clean and minimalist designs, every little bit that you do towards sustainable direct mail is going to help you contribute to change.
At Blue Market Media, we help you go green without lessening your ROI. Let us help you create a smarter, sustainable future – one campaign at a time.