How to Ensure a Direct-Mail Campaign Remains Cost Effective

For decades, direct mail has been a pillar of both business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketing campaigns—and for good reason. Although it may seem in the digital age that more modern forms of marketing would leave this dinosaur in the dust, direct mail marketing remains highly effective at converting prospective customers into buyers.

In 2015, the Direct Marketing Association showed direct mail response rates at 4 percent, outperforming digital options significantly.

Yet, direct mail marketing can quickly become cost-inefficient if proper steps aren’t taken, which is why companies must maximize their marketing spend in the following ways:

Limit Production Costs

The most obvious route to decreasing your direct mail marketing dollars is by reducing the cost of printing and postage:

• Decrease the weight and size of your deliverable.
• If you normally send out a detailed brochure, instead try a streamlined postcard with a link to your online landing page that provides more comprehensive information.
• Presort your mailings by postal code or combine your direct mail with other companies’ through commingling for greater discounts.

Options to reduce your direct mail printing and postage cost are probably as long as your mailing list, and each option will depend on the unique attributes of your marketing campaign.

Perform Data Hygiene

If you’re using the same mailing list from 2 or 3 years ago, you’re probably wasting money, as people move, their interests or demographics change and some on your list may have even passed away.

Take advantage of the wide selection of tools available to clean up your mailing list. Be sure to remove deceased contacts in addition to repeat entries and incomplete or undeliverable addresses. If you’ve never performed data hygiene, cleaning up redundant entries could save you marketing dollars and improve the likelihood that your mailings are reaching viable prospects.

Make It Count

Once you minimize the cost of producing a direct-mail campaign, it’s then important to make each of those pieces of collateral as valuable as possible.

Highly effective marketing pieces use every single letter and image of their message to convert prospects into customers. A well-designed, fancy deliverable will only collect dust on coffee tables if the included message doesn’t drive home why your products or services are needed.

Hiring or outsourcing a quality copywriter and graphic designer can help improve your message, which may raise your conversions for each piece of direct mail sent to your targeted audience.

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As you can see, saving money with your direct mail efforts can be as simple as streamlining your message and cleaning up your list. Try these often-overlooked methods for lowering the cost of your direct mail campaign, and then be sure to improve its message and imagery to maximize response rates.

And of course, if you are seeking an agency that specializes in direct-mail marketing and ensures your campaign is as cost-effective as possible, contact The frank Agency today.