If you’ve been using direct mail marketing strategies for your business for any amount of time, one of your biggest questions is likely how to boost your response rates. That’s not to say that direct mail doesn’t offer great response rates as a rule — but who among us doesn’t want an increase in customer engagement and overall attention to our business?
There’s no shame in the hustle, whether you’ve been hitting it out of the park with your direct mail response rates and want to eke out a few more leads per mailing, or you’ve seen lackluster results and want that to change.
The higher your response rates, the better chance you’ll land qualified leads who later become customers — hopefully for the long-term! At Integra, we’ve been helping our clients reach their ideal audience and boost their response rates through effective direct mail strategies for decades, and we’re here to do the same for you.
Here are three of the best methods we’ve learned for increasing direct mail effectiveness to yield higher returns over the lifecycle of a campaign.
1. Track Your Direct Mail Response Rates Accurately From the Start
If you send mail to your constituents without any way to track how well it reaches and invites, you’ll never be able to increase your response rates because you simply won’t know them. Mailing without tracking is the direct mail version of shouting into the void.
Let’s say you manage a small grocery store, and you’ve sent out one batch of postcards to 1,000 local residents. You notice an increase in store traffic shortly after the mailing, but did it actually work? Or did something else draw that extra attention? Maybe an event occurred in town that caused a surge of traffic past your location. People saw, so they came.
Or maybe you see no increase at all when in reality, a large portion of your typically loyal customers weren’t shopping that week. Your numbers came out even, but the net new customers showed up because they received your mail.
The point is, you can’t rely on the business alone. Instead, build tracking into your overall strategy from the start so you can keep a closer eye on your direct mail return on investment (ROI). You could try pairing your mailings with a digital counterpart like SynergyMail that offers greater insight into your response rates while boosting your online presence with omnichannel marketing cohesive with your direct mail branding. Or, you could independently add a tracking QR code or phone number to each piece to keep count of responses.
Once you know what’s working and truly catching your prospects’ attention, you can tweak following campaigns and hone your strategy, building on that knowledge. In simpler terms, you can’t boost your response rate if you don’t know your response rate.
2. Build Incentives Into Each Direct Mail Piece
There’s no question in anyone’s mind that marketing can get overwhelming in today’s ad-heavy, oversaturated spaces. You’re already making a big positive move by choosing direct mail over digital-only outreach, but you’ll still need to go the extra mile to make your offer enticing to a crowd advertised to on a daily — sometimes hourly — basis.
So how can you reach out to your potential customers with more than just a “Hi, we’re here!” message? How can you make it feel worth their while to even interact with your mail, let alone respond to it? That’s where the incentive comes in.
Some incentives that might help include:
- Built-in coupons printed on the mail piece
- Sales events announced exclusively via direct mail
- Event invitations
- Grand opening announcements
- Giveaway lotteries
- Free consultations
The list goes on. You can really get creative with your incentives and customize them entirely to your business and audience. Just don’t make one of the most common direct mail mistakes by failing to make it clear. Once you’ve chosen your incentive, make it loud and clear as the call to action.
Are you wondering how quickly you might be able to get your new mail pieces designed, printed and sent out to your audience? Consider using our timeline calculator below to get an estimate for your project’s turnaround time with Integra.
3. Personalize Each Mail Piece in Your Direct Mail Campaign
Think about yourself when you evaluate whether or not a new piece of mail is worth your time. Does “Resident” or “To Whom It May Concern” strike your fancy and cause you to tear into an envelope? If you’re like most, probably not.
What about envelopes that don’t have your name, but do include your full address? At the very least, it can be more enticing than a totally anonymous mail piece.
We’re not saying there’s no place for unaddressed, EDDM-style direct mail campaigns — they absolutely have their place. But if your goal is a boost in overall response rates and engagement, one of the easiest ways you can achieve it is by showing each recipient that you meant to reach them specifically. If you used addressed saturation, you’ll at least be incorporating an address. With targeted mailing, you’ll offer the full package, name included.
With some extra effort, you may even find a way to take it a step further. For instance, some of our clients have used variable data to tell their prospects just how far away they are from the products and services on offer. Think about the novelty of a postcard saying “You’re only 1.874 miles away from fresh, locally grown produce. Stop by!”
Which Direct Mail Response Rate Booster Will You Embrace This Year?
Undoubtedly, we all want better response rates. The tricky part is knowing what steps to take to get those pumped up numbers, and knowing how to take them.
In other words, you’re well-past the hard part. Now you’ve got some strategies on hand that can help you put your best mail pieces forward — and actually hear back. You should track every campaign, but our other two tips may or may not apply as you find yourself expanding your mailing strategies. Don’t be afraid to mix and match along the way to find the methods that work best for you, and more importantly, for your market-ready audience.
Have you tried some of these tips yourself and seen a big shift in numbers? Share your success stories with our team, and ask any direct mail questions on your mind by contacting us below. We’ll be on standby to help guide you — or just celebrate with you!
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