Having a rough day? Have a steak! Celebrating a special occasion? How would you like your steak cooked? Your last meal on Earth? A perfectly prepared, expertly seasoned, sizzling steak. Porterhouse, rib-eye, flank, skirt, sirloin… Oh, the infinite choices! If you give someone a steak, you have their attention.

Picture the postcard you receive in your mailbox with the image of the most photogenic steak. You can almost taste it. It’s sent by a financial services company, inviting you to a free steak dinner with all the fixin’s. All you have to do is attend their seminar to learn about their company and how they can help you with your finances.

You are tempted, but it’s a busy month. You have a lot going on already; can you really squeeze this in? You pass. You toss the juicy steak postcard in the trash, as your mouth continues to water, while wondering what boring grilled chicken and steamed broccoli dish you’ll be having for dinner tonight.

The next day, your spouse (or child, or some other member of your household) mentions that savory steak dinner that has been dancing in your dreams. “Hey, did you see that free steak seminar? I haven’t had a good steak in some time. I want to go! We should go! Let’s go!” But you threw that postcard away! Did they dig through the trash can? How did they know? The power of addressable geotargeting! More power to the printed piece!

When direct mail campaigns are combined with digital technologies such as addressable geotargeting, companies are delivering additional impressions of that advertisement to every device in the household such as cellphones and laptops. But wait, there’s more! Now these digital ads, that match that printed postcard, can also be displayed on the devices of every one of your neighbors as well. Maybe you really like your neighbors and you would enjoy a free steak dinner with them; now the whole neighborhood is invited to join you. If you don’t like your neighbors, well that’s another story for another time.

Now that we’re satiated with our savory steak dinner, let’s move on to dessert! Cookies! Google has been threatening to remove cookies for years. Cookies have been an effective tracking tool for online advertising. The latest news is that they’ve postponed the cookie crumble until the year 2024. While some companies rely on retargeting pixels placed on websites, thanks to addressable geotargeting, many have figured out how to still target their ideal customers; with these additional impressions throughout the internet, without the use of a cookie or pixel.

“As a tech company, we stay abreast of potential changes in the marketing landscape and how they might affect our print partners while always trying to add more value to their offerings,” explains Morgan DiGiorgio, SVP Sales at DirectMail2.0. “The direct mail recipient is the target and we want to deliver a true one-to-one connection. With our new TargetMatch suite of technologies, our partners can deliver this added value to their direct mail clients, and show them how Addressable Geo is truly the future of omnichannel marketing.”

Direct mail providers also need to show their clients that their printed piece did provide ROI, so tracking the response is essential. When that direct mail recipient visits the website, they are matched to the mailing list. When they visit the actual retail location or the oil change facility or bank lobby to sign up for that new checking account, their device is pinged to show attribution to the mailing list. Watching these results in real time is a fulfilling fact of this omnichannel system. Finally, true attribution that the power of print lives on and lifts results!

And let’s not forget about the industries that have been plagued with advertising restrictions due to the nature of their business such as cannabis, CBD, firearms, tobacco, gambling, and others. They are now seeing new omnichannel options. While certain advertising channels may not allow their kind, they can capitalize on direct mail integration to target certain addresses along with all their neighbors. This is a huge segment of marketing leaders who have ad dollars to spend. Let’s start marketing smarter, not harder.

DirectMail2.0 is a marketing automation platform that lifts direct mail response rates 23-46% through omnichannel marketing. Fourteen integrated digital technologies, now including Addressable Geo, blend seamlessly with the printed piece to increase your client’s return on investment, prove campaign attribution, and attract new print business. If you’re looking to maintain a competitive edge and offer your clients more, contact [email protected] today.