How can we combine direct mail and ecommerce to increase our response?

Jeremy Colston, CRM manager of Center Parcs, asks our panel of experts for help in establishing the right marketing mix. The challenge? To use direct mail with ecommerce to add weight to response rates.

David Walker, director of brand marketing at Royal Mail, Ewen Sturgeon, CEO of LBI UK, and John Frazer-Robinson, honorary fellow of the IDM, come up with some inspired solutions to establish a successful integrated marketing campaign. 

Email benefits from speed, timeliness and low cost, and it links easily to online booking, while direct mail has depth of information, establishes an emotional connection, and passes through many hands. So, for example, Center Parcs can use email to alert people of a mini-brochure due to arrive in the post.

Combining online and offline campaigns can increase effectiveness by 14%, but it's important to keep the messaging consistent, using offline to focus on new customers and to migrate existing customers online.