So, you want to start a Mail Campaign?
Lately, many clients have been coming to me asking how to launch (or relaunch) a direct mail campaign. Over the years a lot of focus has been on the digital side, but time and time again, direct mail has proven a powerful tool especially when coordinated with digital efforts. With inbox overflowing with hundreds of marketing emails a day and AI sorting out the “junk” for you so you can focus on the “important” messages, it’s easy for marketing email efforts to get lost. However, with mail, well you must look at it for at least some time while you sort what to keep on the counter versus straight to the trash can. Those precious moments give you a window to create:
Brand Recognition
An opportunity for engagement
A call to action
So how do you jump in or reengage with direct mail in the modern world? It can be confusing when confronted with data driven analytics, increased postage costs, variable print capabilities and proving your ROI.
First you need a Plan
Ask yourself:
What is your goal?
Who is your audience?
What is your budget?
What is your timeline?
How will I measure success?
What is your Goal?
Are you trying to increase leads?
Boost online conversions?
Improve customer retention?
Re-engage cold or dormant customer?
Clarifying your goal helps determine what success is for your campaign and what you need to track to measure success. Goal will also help determine your piece design, messaging and offer. There are many options out there with mail and whether you are seeking a high value acquisition or wanting to reinvest in your customer, there are options that can make sense for you.
Who is your Audience?
By identifying your audience, you can figure out volume which really drives your budget and, in the end, determines what your final piece will look like. Data driven audience based on demographics, purchase tendencies, customer profiles are very successful, however they come at a cost. Saturating an area based on geographic info can increase leads, but your response rate will fall. Remarketing to customers who have engaged in other channels, whether online, in the store or calling a call center can be successful and in today’s environment can be very efficiently executed. In addition, you want to figure out how you are going to track responses from these mail pieces. A wide range of options are available like specific DIDs, QR Codes, PURLS, solicitation codes, digital retargeting, offer codes or even just good old fashion walk ins. You’ll want to make sure you have the right call to action to coordinate with your response channels and ensure you have the proper method of tracking on that piece.
What is your Budget?
Now that you know your goal and audience, mail providers can start building budgets and scenarios. A lot of factors go into the costs of mail program. Size, weight, feel (yes textures), smell (yes, fragrances too) are all as important as the final copy and design. You want to make sure to leave some space for that call to action and USPS has some pretty strict guidelines. Your mail provider can help you navigate this path and finally get to the postage discussion. Postage is by far the largest piece of the budget, and it can range for $0.24 to $0.77 for the same piece depending on how you execute it. This discussion will really refine your mail campaign and make sure you are maximizing your budget and your ROI.
What is the Timeline?
In today’s digital age, we are used to instant action. You could execute an email campaign today if you wanted to. I’m not saying you can’t execute a mail campaign today, but some thought should be taken into timelines when thinking about executing a successful mail campaign. When do you want the mail in home? Are you trying to align with a digital effort? Is there a sale going on that you want to drive more traffic to? Once you have that In-Home date, you can work backwards from there and think through the manufacturing of the piece, and before that there is the approval of the piece. Make sure you save time for going back and forth with your provider to ensure the design, copy, offer and variable data are all in the right place. Your mail provider should have a good quality control process that ensures that you are getting what you’ve paid for and that the right piece is being delivered to the right place at the right time to the right audience.
How will I measure Success?
So just like the preverbal “black box” of programming, sending mail can feel that way. “My provider told me we’d hit in home dates. How do I know it got there?” You are usually at the hands of your customers hoping for response. However, in today’s world, we’re getting better at tracking and collaborating with the USPS to know where in the stream your mail is. Using APIs and tools like Informed Delivery, you get better insights into your mail. And when you combine that data with the data from your response channels, you’re able to get a more holistic picture of what happened to your mail. You can start answering questions like what kind of action my customers took when receiving their mail? Did they go online? Make a phone call? Click a QR Code? Click on an Instagram ad? Often, we used to guess and infer, but combining that data with tracking data, you can get a lot more information than just a guess. And that will drive confidence in your team to know that your mail campaign successfully hit the goals you set.
Some say that mail is archaic, and some say mail is complex. But by leveraging experience, technology and customer service, mail providers can help lead you to a successful mail campaign. In our client analysis, we consistently see over 50% of their responding customers are exposed to mail. It is channel you can no longer ignore. Here are Premier Direct Marketing, we are here to help you find that success.