A New Approach To Direct Mail Advertising

With less companies sending out mailings, the postal service is being forced to increase rates and cut services in order to stay afloat. Lower volumes at the post office are creating opportunities for savvy companies who are open to a new approach to the old standard of direct mail marketing.

Savvy businesses are educating themselves about the different services at the post office and how regulations are enforced. For instance, substantial discounts are available to people mailing to 90 or more percent of the addresses in a mail route. This can be a great savings to larger mailers that are targeting specific ZIP codes or demographic areas.

Lower demand has also brought down the average rental rates for direct marketing lists, creating a savings for businesses who solicit directly to consumers. Even the higher priced permission-based b-to-b lists have dropped an average of $4 per thousand names since last year, making it more financially beneficial for companies to launch new direct mail campaigns.

Marketers are developing methods to collect more detailed data from customers, and then utilizing this information to increase customer referrals and cross- and up-selling. The analysis of data including behavioral and interactive information, the reasons and means for customer complaints, attitudes and transcripts of call-center notes, etc., allows a company to track who responds instead of how many respond.

Studies have shown that mail directed to a current customer is more than twice as likely to be opened. And the best proven method for obtaining a response is to include a promotional product. A study conducted by the Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) determined that the inclusion of a promotional product increases the direct mail response rate by 50%.

Highly targeted direct mail campaigns which include something of value to the recipient are bringing a much higher return on investment. The smart marketer is getting a bigger bang for their buck by taking advantage of postal service discounts and lowering the volume of each mailing, then reinvesting these dollars in higher quality pieces targeted to their greatest source for increased sales and referrals: their existing customer base.