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Cross-Pollinating Marketing Success
How businesses large and small can learn from each other's marketing success
As digital marketing becomes more saturated and businesses large and small look for new ways to drive campaign performance, it's worth considering how the other side operates.
How can small companies think bigger? And what small business norms can be applied to enterprise-size strategies? The insights gleaned from questions like these can help both sides adjust their channel approach going forward. The mix they're looking for will help a business of any size stand out more, connect with audiences on a personal level, and nurture deeper engagement.
A fresh look at how — or if — direct mail is a part of that mix just might serve up the right solution.
The Marketing Challenges Impacting Businesses Large and Small
Brands have quickly come up against an oversaturated digital landscape. Engaging with customers and prospects is getting harder among a sea of 9.7 billion emails sent in the U.S. every day, per Statista. Americans are juggling content across multiple connected devices and platforms. Even podcasts, a coveted niche market for digital advertisers, saw penetration peak in North American markets in 2022, per eMarketer.
Moreover, a March 2024 forecast from eMarketer predicts that U.S. digital ad spend will soar above $300 billion this year. But with a crowded market making it harder for a brand to be noticed, engagement waning, and budgets tightening, marketers are questioning if they're getting the same value out of that digital spend. How can they hope to stand out?
Small business and enterprise marketers often approach campaigns in ways that are different from each other. To navigate today's marketing challenges, they can learn from each other's strengths.
The More Personalized Approach of Small Businesses
Small businesses have a refreshing ability to stay nimble and connected with their customers — and the better a business knows its customers, the more effective its offers, campaigns, and user experience can be.
They may lean on innovative, cost-effective marketing tactics to fit their budgets. Plus, if they use first-party data to connect with their audiences one-on-one, they may have the option to pivot quickly as data and behavior changes. This is critical because 91 percent of consumers said they're more likely to shop with brands that provide relevant offers and recommendations, according to a 2023 Intent HQ report on personalization.
A smaller company's agility usually comes from having fewer people and systems in place, which reduces bottlenecks in the decision-making process. They use that flexibility to their advantage to respond to customer needs, whether by adjusting marketing campaigns, creative, or the products themselves.
What Can a Big Business Learn From Small Businesses?
Large companies can benefit by embracing the approach of leading small businesses. Every customer is unique, and speaking to their individual wants and needs with tailored messaging can make a big difference in the ability to capture and convert. By finding ways to make authentic connections, a company can deliver a better customer experience and nurture loyal buyers.
Agility and adaptability may not come easy in a larger organization. But big businesses must try to implement agile marketing practices so they can respond to market changes more easily. It's also wise to develop creative engagement strategies that aren't one-size-fits-all.
The Strength and Scale of Larger Companies
On the other hand, there's much that big businesses are good at that small businesses can learn from, including knowing their processes well and leveraging their resources. They are able to lean on their scale and reach to execute marketing campaigns, using several channels concurrently to attract, retain, and nurture customers throughout the journey.
Larger organizations often take advantage of advanced marketing tools and technologies to do this. From content creation to data management and campaign measurement, enterprises have analytics down. Many are investing in the tools and services that enable precision targeting and drive higher response rates. For example, the Lob "2024 State of Direct Mail Marketing" report shows that nearly three quarters of marketers are incorporating marketing automation platforms. What's more, about 70 percent are using a customer relationship management (CRM) or customer data platform.
How Can a Small Business Think Big?
Small businesses can employ various tactics to help drive customer action just as large companies do, but on a smaller scale — developing omnichannel campaigns to expand their reach, for example. By adopting technology such as CRM software or other marketing automation tools, marketers can find it much easier to implement and optimize multiple tactics to engage consumers.
Small businesses also need to use data to their advantage, just as bigger companies do. Data can help inform smart marketing decisions, including quality targeting. Plus, tracking and measuring campaign performance is essential for success. In the Lob report, 64 percent of large companies reported leveraging data to optimize future campaigns.
What's the Solution? And What Does Direct Mail Have to Do with It?
By utilizing a smart mix of tried-and-true personalized channels such as email, programmatic ad buys, and retargeting campaigns, brands can connect to their audience no matter their business size. Direct mail is a similar but underutilized channel that offers a cost-effective way for brands of all sizes to reach their audience in a personalized way.
As a powerful performance channel, direct mail enables a big brand to directly address a customer's wants and needs, and builds a stronger relationship through a more one-on-one approach.
For small businesses, advertising with direct mail is a reliable, measurable way to attract and build a customer base. Like enterprise marketers, they can use direct mail automation software to reach the right people with the perfect message. Plus, using an online tool to add direct mail to a marketing mix can make it easier to connect with digital efforts and maintain cohesive omnichannel messaging.
For both, leveraging direct mail will enhance their efforts to make their digital marketing investments more effective. According to data on direct mail ROI from Deep Sync, reaching the same audience across offline and online touchpoints can increase conversion rates by more than 65 percent. By delivering a creative, persuasive message — especially a tangible one that truly engages — brands of all sizes can rise above the cluttered landscape.
Key Takeaway
The world has gone digital, and fatigue has set in. How can a company, small or big, expect to get noticed among the myriad of alerts, banners, and email notifications? The answer may lie in observing what works for other marketing operations and cross-pollinating successes — small business can learn from how big businesses approach their strategies, and vice versa.
It's worth taking a fresh look at direct mail with those valuable insights in mind. Adding direct mail to a larger brand's marketing mix will help amplify their digital efforts and connect on a more personal level with customers. For small brands, direct mail can leverage cutting-edge techniques to help them grow. The key for both is continually looking outside the box to gain something new.
The United States Postal Service is a partner in the ANA Thought Leadership Program.
All information, content, and materials discussed in this article are for general information purposes only and do not, and are not intended to, convey or constitute advice from USPS.
