People Are Looking to Spend Less Time Online — Here's How to Reach Your Audience Anyway

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Key Takeaways

Invest in the least irritating marketing channel — it also has an 800% higher response rate.
Create events in real life to generate more revenue and brand loyalty.
Integrate online and offline marketing to ensure you aren’t being left behind by competitors.

Digital detoxing is trending this year. But what the heck is it? For those not in the know, a digital detox is a period of time where people consciously reduce or completely eliminate the use of their digital devices and online platforms.

It isn’t that surprising — millions of people are reporting digital overwhelm. Pinterest recently reported that searches for “digital detox vision board” are trending up by 273% and “digital detox ideas” by 72%. Another study is projecting that digital detox apps will reach about $19.44 billion by 2032, up from $0.39 billion in 2023.

More and more, people are seeking out ways to be screen-free and enjoy new, IRL (in-real-life) experiences.

But what does this trend mean for digital marketing, and how will it affect your business? If you’ve been marketing primarily online, you’ve probably seen costs increasing while returns are diminishing.

If you haven’t already, it’s time to start strategizing offline tactics.

I’ve grown my business, PostcardMania, to $119 million in annual revenue using a delicate balance of online and offline marketing. Here are my top tips to increase leads and revenue using this strategy.

Invest in the least irritating marketing channel — it also has an 800% higher response rate

When it comes to marketing communications, studies show that people view certain channels as more annoying than others. In fact, email and text were found to be the most irritating channels when consumers were bombarded with excessive messages. And according to another study, 46% of people said they received emails too frequently, while direct mail was the least likely to be rated as overwhelming.

Direct mail is an underrated and underutilized marketing channel. Not only is it less irritating and invasive, but many buyers report they trust marketing mail more than digital advertisements. One survey found 76% of people rated direct mail as trustworthy, while online pop-up ads were seen as least trustworthy at 25%.

Perhaps most importantly, research found that direct mail has a response rate of up to 9% compared to less than 1% for email — an 800% difference.

There are two ways to incorporate direct mail into your marketing mix: Bulk mailings for lead generation or automated trigger mailings for lead follow-up.

With bulk mailings for lead generation, you’ll find more accurate targeting options than on any digital platform. While Google and Meta continue to remove targeting options due to privacy issues, you’ll find ample options available when you target with direct mail. Home values, the ages of children living in the household, the year the home was built, credit scores and much more.

With laser-focused targeting and well-established credibility, direct mail reliably delivers an impressive ROI across hundreds of industries. We found that, last year, each direct mail lead spent about 500% more revenue on average than digital leads.

The second and newest way brands are incorporating direct mail is through automated trigger-based mailings that follow up with prospects and customers at different points in the buying cycle. With trigger mailings, you only pay for each piece as it’s triggered — the key is creating the right automations.

Triggers can be powerful, and the options are nearly endless: for example, when an anonymous website visitor leaves your site without converting or abandons their shopping cart. Both would automatically receive a mail piece a day or two later. Triggered mail can also be used for customers who don’t reorder in a set amount of time, or for new prospects to introduce them to their account representative with a physical business card.

Some trigger options combine real-time data with your campaign to target new movers who just entered your service area or the neighbors of a job that your company just completed.

In most cases, any use case you can think of can be programmed and will run on autopilot as easily as email automation. The real difference is the response you can expect — up to 9 times higher than email marketing.

Create events in real life to generate more revenue and brand loyalty

As the Pinterest Summer Trend Report noted, people are looking for new and engaging experiences in real life, not online. When was the last time your business connected with leads and customers in person?

My company started an in-house event for clients, our Small Business Owners’ Growth Summit, in 2014. It’s turned out to be a great success and sells out every time. We’ve continued the tradition twice a year since because it fosters lifetime relationships for us.

The statistics also back this up: About 85% of customers are more inclined to buy a product or service after attending a live event.

Ask yourself, what is the best way my company can connect in person with leads and customers? Whether it is at your headquarters, like what we do at PostcardMania, or out in the community at a local event, these in-person meetings are likely to make a huge difference in your long-term revenue.

Integrate online and offline marketing to ensure you aren’t being left behind by competitors

If you’re already using direct mail or considering adding it to your marketing mix, make sure it’s integrated with coordinated digital ads, and you’ll see even better results. For maximum results, your prospects should see coordinated ads on Facebook, Instagram, Google, YouTube, Gmail and Connected TV during your mailing campaign.

Over 91% of marketers agree that integrating direct mail and digital channels has a positive impact on campaign performance. And consumers agree — 60% said they are extremely or very likely to respond to a promotion when they see it across multiple channels.

The most important factor to successfully integrating your online and offline campaigns is cohesion. You want cohesive brand elements, messaging and promotions across each ad, your landing page(s) and your website. This way, it’s easier for people to associate each ad with your business — you want all of these ad impressions to “add up” into one larger, multichannel campaign that will generate leads and new customers.

One of my clients launched an integrated marketing campaign that ran digital ads on Facebook, Instagram and Google, and they mailed postcards at the same time. They generated an additional $120,000 in revenue as a result. Their digital ads matched the postcards so that prospects could recognize the messaging immediately.

Despite these changing trends, your marketing should never stop. Stay consistent, and you’ll make it to the end of the year with more revenue than you anticipated.

Key Takeaways

Invest in the least irritating marketing channel — it also has an 800% higher response rate.
Create events in real life to generate more revenue and brand loyalty.
Integrate online and offline marketing to ensure you aren’t being left behind by competitors.

More and more, people are seeking out ways to be screen-free and enjoy new, IRL (in-real-life) experiences.

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