9 steps to successful direct mail

With some key marketing channels impacted by the Coronavirus lockdown -and a massive potential audience – there has never been a better time to consider using Direct Mail as part of your multichannel campaigns!

Direct mail works!

Responses are typically over 1%
Example conversion from quotes to sales 17%

Direct Mail is opened and engaged with!

Brochures - 71% open and 56% interact
Letter promotion or special offer - 68% are open and 55% interact
Letter about a product/service they don’t have - 60% open and 43% interact

Direct Mail has longevity!

Advertising mail is kept for average of 17 days
Door drops are kept for 38 days
Bills and statements are kept for 45 days

Direct Mail is shared!

23% of all mail is shared between people in a household
39% have a dedicated display area in their home

More people than ever are making a point of looking at and engaging with their mail every day. This can only be good for open rates cut through and conversion. We are already seeing clients not just continue with direct mail but looking to increase volume.

Successful direct mail in 9 steps

To get you on track to tap into this powerful channel, we have created a handy checklist – successful direct mail in just 9 steps:

Step 1 – How to choose your target audience

Decide who to send the mailing to. Assess what you know about your current customers and use the information to inform your audience selection.
Attributes to consider:

• Age
• Location
• Profession
• Income
• Gender
• Socio-economic status
• Household composition

Step 2 - How to avoid mailing your existing customer base

One of the huge benefits of direct mail campaigns is the ability to exclude your current customers from any cold direct mail campaigns, ensuring that you:

• Maintain brand reputation
• Minimise wastage by only targeting those who may be likely to respond

Step 3 - How to set a call to action (CTA)

Consider carefully what your primary CTA should be and what method of communication and ordering you want customers to use. There are multiple options available, including telephone, online, SMS, Direct Debit and paper-based reply form.

Call to action checklist:

• Can your organisation support all of the methods you’ve selected? If not, which ones can it support?  Can people purchase on your website?
• What resource do you need internally to be able to support the responses generated from a direct mail campaign?

Step 4 – How to decide on the format of a direct mail pack?

There are a number of considerations to take into account here, including budget and format:

Budget: It goes without saying that a postcard is significantly cheaper than a letter with an insert, leaflet and/or Business Reply Envelope (BRE) included.

Formats: Postcards are an economical format compared to other and come in different sizes. They are a clear and effective messaging tools you can use for a variety of products and services.

Self-mailers which combine a brochure/leaflet format with the mailing information: Typically in the form of brochures and leaflets, self-mailers are the best option if you want to introduce products to new customers.

Letters: A traditional form of direct mail, lead letters are a more confidential approach and sent in an envelope – which can be branded and printed with custom design.

Catalogues: E Catalogues are your best option for showcasing multiple products, with space for pictures, extended copy and offers. If you have the budget they are a great tool to engage and tempt.

Step 5 -How to determine the campaign look and messaging

Testing your messaging: 5 Direct mail allows you to scientifically 'test' your creative messaging, because you can divide your mailing and send different creatives to a subset of the mailing file so you can analyse the response rates for each creative to determine which one performs better.

Personalisation: Thanks to today’s digital print capabilities, the level of targeting available within direct mail and the technology behind it means that you can create a mail piece tailored with dynamically-selected imagery, information and formats that will better resonate with them at a personal level, increasing the likelihood of response and conversion.

Longevity: Where possible, aim to create a piece of mail that the recipient benefits from keeping around the house for longer

Step 6: How to decide which partners to use

If you have undertaken few or no direct mail campaigns, prevsiously it is a good idea to partner with trusted experts in this field. This should be everyone from the supplier of GDPR-compliant prospect data, to those who will clean the data, and create a ready-to-use mailing file, through to your chosen printer and mailing house

Step 7: How to determine what other marketing activities to run

Timing and the ‘halo’ effect: 7 If you’re thinking about running other marketing activities alongside your direct mail campaign, consider the impact they might have. Are the additional activities complementary? Will there be a 'halo effect’, whereby the recipient of the direct mail piece may also see or hear an advert in the national press or on the radio?

Consider the timings of the campaign and whether you are able to take advantage of multi-channel communications to increase the halo effect. Conversely, you need to ensure that one activity doesn't cannibalise the other: a door drop going out at the same time as your direct mail campaign could potentially reach much of the same audience, and would therefore be a waste of time and resource.

Getting creative: Consider the creative integration of your activity. Brand imagery should be consistent with that which the recipient may see elsewhere, especially if your messaging promotes web visits. You need to ensure that the creative is coordinated, as this serves to reinforce brand recognition and recall, as well as delivering a consistent message across all of the organisation’s activities

Step 8: How to tell if your campaign has worked

At the beginning of your campaign planning, it’s vital that you consider how you will track the performance of your campaign so that you calculate it’s ROI, e.g. for every £1 spent on, what return is it delivering to your organisation?

With the correct tracking mechanisms in place, direct mail is one of the most trackable media channels. Every response can be directly attributed to a specific direct mail campaign.

Coding is a simple device for revealing precisely who has responded to which mailing and which creative. With correct coding, you will be able to:

• Report back on the number of orders directly attributable to the direct mail campaign
• Use the comprehensive results analysis to tell you more about the responders and what their demographics look like
• See which subsets of the target audience responded better, and which you can build on for future campaigns

Step 9: What results you can expect

There are many factors which will influence the response rates that your activity may generate.

Factors within your control:

• Targeting
• Donation value
• Creative Messaging

External factors outside of your control:

• Competitor activities
• Timings
• Societal events/attitudes

Benchmarks will vary dependent on sector, but with significant experience in planning campaigns within your sector, a direct mail partner such as Sagacity, can provide forecasted response rates and ROI predictions for your campaign activity. This allows a level of budgetary forecasting that can be reported to the business ahead of the campaign going live.

Want to find out how we can help you implemented a highly effective direct mail campaign? Then get in touch.