Developing a marketing strategy to acquire new customers can get complicated, even for the most savvy digital marketing expert. From email marketing and social media to digital ads and direct mail pieces, how do you know where to place your bets for the best return on investment?
Some might say “all of the above,” or a multichannel approach works best to reach the most potential customers. While there’s no disputing the fact that casting a wider net can help you reel in more fish, the cost to develop a wide-ranging marketing plan can also max out your budget.
That’s where a purpose-driven direct mail campaign can boost your marketing efforts and allow you to home in on the target audience you seek—with less hassle, lower costs, and greater results.
To find success with their direct mail marketing campaign strategy, Griffin Brothers Companies utilizes Marketing Pro Direct Mail for acquisition, a new offering available through ServiceTitan, to hyper-target specific neighborhoods for expansion, says Ann Collias, former marketing director for Griffin Brothers, a community of service brands based in North Carolina.
“We primarily use Marketing Pro Direct Mail for new acquisition, and we save email campaigns for our existing customers,” Collias says. “That has been a really cool way to research those neighborhoods, and also filter through property data to know we're getting our highest impact.”
What is Marketing Pro Direct Mail for prospects?
Marketing Pro Direct Mail’s prospecting features became available in late 2022 to all ServiceTitan users as part of the Marketing Pro full suite of services, which also includes Email, Direct Mail for existing customers, Reputation, and Ads.
With ServiceTitan’s Direct Mail tool, business owners can:
Build direct mail acquisition campaigns without the hassle.
Create mailers for direct mail campaigns with no need to buy mailing lists, deal with printers, or waste time poring over metrics on spreadsheets. Upload your own postcard design or use one of our pre-built templates, then send to prospect mailing lists based on property data.
Deliver marketing messages that resonate.
Engage more customers to take your call to action by replacing generic marketing campaigns with targeted messaging to specific homeowners based on property details like assessed value, age of structure, type of heating or cooling system, and last sold date.
Generate a lower cost-per-lead for direct mail acquisition.
Develop targeted mailing lists that deliver better conversion rates by using visual maps, demographics, and property attributes to define your audience, and filtering out current customers already in your ServiceTitan database.
Gain deeper insights to make smarter marketing decisions.
Tie your acquisition direct mail campaign performance with your ServiceTitan data and gain better insights on how to optimize future marketing campaigns. See immediately which postcards are driving calls, booked jobs, and revenue for your company.
Direct mail versus email
If sending physical mail seems counterintuitive in today’s digital e-commerce world, fear not. Receiving a piece of mail remains popular with all kinds of audiences, from the elderly to millennials, according to the following statistics from the USPS, Data & Marketing Association, and other direct mail analysts:
90% open rates for direct mail, whereas consumers open only 20%-30% of emails.
17 seconds for the average lifespan of an email, compared to direct mail’s average lifespan of 17 days.
50% of people tried a new product, service, or establishment in the past six months after receiving mailers, coupons, or ads in the mail.
73% of American consumers say they prefer contact from brands via direct mail because they can read it whenever they want.
50.9% of recipients say they find postcards with coupon codes, special offers, and pricing useful.
Historically, an email or digital ad may hold your attention for a maximum of five seconds, but direct mail has up to a 30-day shelf life, says ServiceTitan's Direct Mail Manager Colleen Connery.
"I look at the shelf life of a direct mail campaign as being able to reinsert itself multiple times in its lifespan, whereas a digital platform piece may live in your sphere for a day," Connery says.
Direct Mail automation filters real property data
Service providers start a direct mail campaign by selecting the service area they wish to target, using up to five ZIP codes in a certain area. With the Direct Mail tool, a small business or large enterprise can then filter by specific property features, such as:
Total Assessed Value
Property Use
Age of Structure
HVAC Cooling System
HVAC Heating System
Total Interior Area
Water Source
Property Last Sold
Exclude Existing Customers By Address/ZIP Code
“With Marketing Pro Direct Mail, we're not just doing a blanket over an entire neighborhood,” Collias says. “We can say we want houses that are between 300K and 500K (assessed value) to receive this direct mail. Or we want houses that are 30 years old that might need a new HVAC system, or houses that are eight years old that might be needing a new water heater. Marketing Pro Direct Mail allows us to be more strategic in who we're sending it to.”
Zeroing in even further, the tool can build retention audiences based on customer data you already have in ServiceTitan, allowing for retargeting and follow-up campaigns to homeowners with unsold estimates, jobs completed, or expiring memberships.
For Griffin Brothers Companies, Collias says an omnichannel marketing approach with an engaging direct mail campaign as the centerpiece works well to build customer relationships in new markets. A high-quality postcard can be as simple as saying, “Hi, we’re new here,” including a QR code for easy online booking, and listing a website landing page and phone number.
“Marketing is definitely changing. It's not necessarily what you do, it's what you stand for and who you are,” Collias says. “We do our research behind it. We want to make sure we're not doing too much. It's very targeted. We want to make sure it's going to specific homes in neighborhoods where we would like to grow into, and then we speak to that audience.
“So, we're very intentional and very strategic in that we plan, and we really want to make an impact,” Collias says. “We want to build that relationship from the start.”
Key features of Marketing Pro Direct Mail
Better response rates
Use property data like assessed value, construction date, and more to send targeted messaging for customer acquisition.
Lower cost-per-lead
Automatically filters out audiences like existing customers or homes without certain property features to deliver a message that resonates at the right time.
Zero-hassle campaigns
Create custom postcards or select from a full library of templates, and build your mailing lists in minutes; no more haggling with printers or third-party providers.
Deeper insights
Limit your marketing spend and track true campaign performance with visibility on revenue, calls, and jobs—all in ServiceTitan.
>> Not on Marketing Pro Full Suite yet? Upgrade today to use Direct Mail.
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