Lead the Horse to Water: Using Print to Increase Web Traffic

So here’s a little something I did a few years back…I used my love of direct mail to help increase website traffic for my company! I thought this was clever, but I’m sure it’s been done before (everything’s been done before.)

Personally, I call this kind of marketing approach the “lead the horse to water” technique. Literally, SHOW the customer WHAT TO DO and WHERE TO GO. How can that not generate results?? Everything is worth a try 🙂

Here’s the front of the mailer….a nice BIG image of a computer with the company’s website on the screen.

website mailer

A nice visual, I think it speaks for itself. The backside of the mailer is all about:

1. HOW to get to our website
2. WHY they should go there
3. WHAT’s in it for them if they do.

Simple, yet effective. This was just another component to the marketing strategy that included email blasts with similar messages. Email blasts are great in that you can obviously include a link back to your website, which takes the work out of the equation for the customer. The reason I incorporated direct mail to entice people to go to our website is because I firmly believe you have to reach people in a multitude of different ways, i.e. hit ’em up 9 times with your message (see previous blog “Is 9 the Magic Number”).

I think if I did this again, I would incorporate some kind of trackable promotion so that I could see if the mailer DID get more people to our website. Like for example “Go to our website to Enter to Win a WHATEVER…”, prompting them during the entering process “What brought you to our website” with the selectable option of “mailer.” To be a good marketer, you need hard data. This will in turn help you justify the cost of printing and postage when the boss asks…and the boss always asks 🙂

Have you launched a direct mail campaign encouraging people to visit your website?? How did you track  the results? Please share! I would love to learn from you!!