Why direct mail is the power tool in your customer acquisition strategy

Advances in the way that marketers use direct mail are paying BIG dividends.

Did you know that response rates seen with the typical house list reached an amazing 9% in 2018? This figure comes from the Direct Marketing Association (now part of the ANA, Data Marketing & Analytics), and it represents giant leap from the prior year, when the average house list campaign netted just over 5%.

If you’re mailing to new prospects, the research predicts that you will see a 5% response, nearly double the 2017 rate of 2.9%.

Why is direct mail performing so powerfully while email and social channels are returning about 1% response rates — and online display ads are pulling just 0.3%?

DMA researchers remind us that their study sample is relatively small. Yet even when we use them only for comparative purposes, these figures are compelling. We think they point to significant improvements in the way organizations are tapping the power of direct mail to lift overall results.

Better direct mail strategies are moving the needle

Over the past 12 months, our direct mail experts have helped ALitho clients make many response-boosting improvements, taking full advantage of:

• Amerlytics, our proprietary data analytics suite, to identify the best prospects for a given offer.
• Predictive modeling techniques to identify thousands, even millions of new prospects that share key attributes with existing customers.
• State-of-the-art variable printing to personalize each mail piece in a given campaign. We’ve invested in HP’s PageWide Web Press T240 HD as well as the HP 12000 system to ensure the highest print quality with the greatest production speed.
• Our dazzling array of special print effects, which have been proven to lift response rates significantly.
• Smarter planning and logistics, taking full advantage of our location near the Bolingbrook Corridor to accelerate in-home delivery.
• Creative use of letter-sized direct mail pieces, which on average produce an astounding 15% response rate in generating new leads, according to DMA findings.

Why direct mail should be integrated with other techniques for greatest ROI

Direct marketers have more channels open to them than ever before – which is why we would never recommend that you rely on direct mail alone. Instead, our expert team will help you make the absolute most of direct mail’s potential, integrating campaigns with online, in-store and other experiential marketing approaches to enhance total results.

We have seen strong returns with print-to-mobile and print-to-web techniques that bring multiple channels together in one highly successful campaign. Capturing signals from all channels helps shape future campaigns as brands for greater efficiency and creative appeal.

Ready to maximize your direct mail results? Tips from our clients

We recently asked a select group of our clients for their best response-building ideas. Here’s a sampling of what they told us.

• It’s all about the offer. A well-timed offer that delivers substantial value will always produce a higher response. Investing thought and research in selecting your offer will definitely pay off.
• Mining customer data to reach the right people is also crucial. Don’t overlook what you already know about the people who love your brand. They will lead you to new sales and new customers if you know how and when to appeal to them.
• Make sure you have the right tracking strategy in place. Direct mail results can be harder to track than email and social, so take full advantage of certificate numbers, codes, unique URLs, scratch-offs and other techniques for tracking responses.

At American Litho, we enjoy working with direct marketing teams that are focused on continuous improvement. We want to see a strong upward trend in your results, month over month  — and our experts have the tools, techniques and capabilities to get you there.

Want a free analysis of your current control? Give us some details about your next project – we’re ready to work with you!