Everything You Need To Know About Direct Mail Marketing

Direct mail advertising can be truly game changing for your marketing strategy and your business as a whole as it offers unique advantages that digital marketing efforts cannot provide, and has proven to be one of the most effective ways of reaching your customer base.

What Is Direct Mail?

Direct mail is a form of marketing that involves sending an item such as a letter or brochure to a customer. Many businesses choose to utilise direct mail marketing in tandem with other marketing formats such as email, SMS and social media advertising.

Who Uses Direct Mail?

Despite the rise of social media marketing, which many businesses are beginning to utilise to broaden the visibility of their brand, direct mail advertising remains a cornerstone marketing technique for thousands of brands. Most of us will have received a form of direct mail from a brand trying to sell us a product or experience, or request donations for a charity or good cause. Additionally, many of us will have at some point subscribed to a membership magazine service wherein mail is sent to you on a regular basis to keep you up to date with a topic of interest.

Direct mail marketing methods are most commonly employed by charities, membership organisations, fashion brands, food and beverage businesses, office and homeware businesses, leisure resorts and estate agents, in truth there’s very few sectors that Direct Mail isn’t used in. Whilst many use Direct Mail as a means of brand promotion and commercial revenue generation – for those selling physical products, distributing samples as part of your direct mail campaign can give your customers a more tangible experience. This is a particularly effective marketing method for those selling fragrances, skincare and makeup products, or food and beverage items, as these items can be fully experienced and appreciated by physically testing them. But it doesn’t stop there either, many charities choose to enclose donation envelopes, charity collection bags, branded items like Pens, coasters or calendars to extend the life of their Direct Mail beyond the initial mailing.

Find out how ADM have helped a wide range of businesses and charities such as Bravissimo, the National Trust and the Bible Society integrate effective direct mail into their marketing plans by exploring our case studies.

What Are The Benefits Of Direct Mail Marketing?

A Tangible Form Of Marketing

Direct mail advertising provides your customers with a tangible item which remains in their home or office for a prolonged period of time, helping to enhance brand awareness. Whereas emails and social media posts can easily be scrolled past, deleted and forgotten, direct mail lingers with your customers for days, weeks, or even months. In fact, a study from the Data and Marketing Association discovered that 27 per cent of direct mail remains in the recipient’s premises for at least 28 days. This provides businesses in the commercial and not-for-profit sector alike with the opportunity to reach their audience repeatedly, which in turn provides greater marketing value for businesses and increases the chance of customers remembering and purchasing from or donating to you.

Mailing Format

From brochures to booklets, letters to catalogues, personalised or plain: the options for your next direct mail campaign are endless. Whether you want to create a simple letter campaign, or want to go all-out and deliver an eye catching catalogue with personalised coupons and special offers encased in eco-friendly wrap – the choice is yours. A direct mail company such as ADM will be able to help you choose the best materials, dimensions and formats to boost the efficacy of your campaign.

Return On Investment

Carrying out a direct mail campaign can sound like a costly endeavour due to the printing, postage and materials. However, a study carried out by the Association of National Advertisers demonstrated that direct mail marketing campaigns have an average ROI of 112 per cent. This is far greater than the ROI for other marketing formats such as SMS (102%), email (93%), paid search (88%), social media (81%), and digital display (79%) all providing less value for money. As such, direct mail marketing is able to yield the best financial rewards for your business, product or service.

A Proven Track Record

Despite digital marketing methods becoming increasingly accessible, direct mail is still utilised broadly by major and growing brands alike. Before the dawn of email and social media marketing, direct mail marketing was one of the most popular ways of reaching new audiences and connecting with existing customers. Whilst email marketing campaigns have an average response rate of 0.12 per cent, direct mail campaigns have an average response rate of 4.4 per cent. This is a testament to the impact that direct mail marketing can have on customers.

Unique Marketing

As discussed above, direct mail marketing should not be overlooked in favour of digital marketing techniques. Rather than relying on digital campaigns that can be lost among the swarm, opting for direct marketing campaigns as standalone or integrated with existing channels breaks the mould and makes your business stand out from the rest. After all, how many hundreds or even thousands of emails do we receive per week compared to the amount of mail? As such, an omni-channel marketing approach that utilises the benefits of direct mail is a fantastic way to ensure that you cover all of your bases.

Things You Need To Know:

When designing, printing and distributing your direct mail, you will have made a host decisions on the format of your mailer and whether it will be wrapped or unwrapped, the data, personalisation and address carrier.  You will have considered all sustainable options and much more.  However, it is important to note that every decision that you make will impact on the cost of your postage.  Postage is the single biggest cost and therefore getting the postage right is the key effective and affordable direct mail.

Postage

It is impossible to overstate the importance of postage when it comes to producing a successful direct mail campaign.

Firstly, bear in mind that whether you are using a down-stream access (DSA) company or Royal Mail, the final mile is always carried out by Royal Mail.  All Royal Mail incentives and discounts also apply to DSA services.

The second thing to note is that there are three categories of mailing services within Royal Mail:

• Advertising Mail
• Publishing Mail
• Business Mail

These are in-line with high volume users of bulk mailing programme.  These include direct mail companies (those selling from the page) and will qualify for Advertising Mail, membership organisations and publishers which send newsletters or magazines direct to their members, supporters and customers, and finally business mail.

Direct Mail Discounts

There are a multitude of incentives, discounts and mail offers available so it’s important to get expert advice to ensure you’re maximising any and all opportunities . Navigating the range of available discounts can be overwhelming – postage rates are part of a very complex and ever-changing picture, this coupled with negotiated rates from DSA providers results in the optimum postal rates on the market.  At ADM we have a designated team to advise clients and ensure that we achieve the best possible rates for each and every mailing project.

Direct Mail Weights and Sizes

Keeping the weight and size of your finished mail pack within the correct weight bands is critical.  This includes the weight of the paper, the inserts and the outer.  If using bio-wrap the size is measured on the dimension of the major insert but if using paper or envelope the measurement is taken from the outer.  Here at ADM we have negotiated rates with TDG beginning at 20.34p/item for letter under 100g. So, when creating your next direct mail campaign, keep your postage at the forefront of your mind.

Formats

Once you understand the principles of postage, you can make informed decisions on the format of your mailing piece. You should consider:

• Size: always keep your Royal Mail Size Guide to hand
• Weight: take care to note the Royal Mail Weight Bands
• Format: are you mailing a catalogue, brochure, newsletter, magazine, letter, postcard, or any other form of direct mail?
• Personalisation: consider whether camera matching is necessary, full name and address, full paragraphs, maps, and any other variables
• Return address: ensure you have the right position and format
• Address details – will you place address on external wrap, print directly onto one-piece mailer, or will you require an address carrier for window envelope or wrap?
• Wrapping:
  • Bio – clear, white banded or full colour
  • Unwrapped – tabbed or untabbed
• Paper wrap – colour or plain
• Envelope – window or non-window

Data

The data is the engine of your direct mail campaign. This transcends the address and contact details you use to distribute your mail. Within your data you may have access to details of previous purchases and choose to include a discount code to these valued customers. You may use your recipient’s postcode to direct them to a local store and include a map or a local event you may wish to advertise – the list of possibilities is endless.  Your in-house mailings will be securely transferred to the mailing house.

Mailing houses such as ADM are able to securely consolidate data to ensure you aren’t sending to the wrong addresses, duplicating mailouts, or including errors on your personalised mailouts. We do this by carrying out data health checks, consulting databases such as the Bereavement Register and National Change Of Address File, and by producing relevant, detailed data reports to keep you up to date. This means you keep ultimate control over who you mail to whilst simultaneously refining your recipient list to optimise the impact of your next direct mail campaign.  It is through this process that you increase the ROI and also the sustainability of your mailing.

Quality Control

To ensure that each of your campaigns is up to standard and of high quality, experienced mail houses will carry out a variety of checks against a ‘control sample’ which represents the ideal standard of mailout.  Here’s just a snippet of how the team at ADM QC your mailing:

• For goods inwards, we carry out visuals check and count into stock
• Live proofs of data and address to you for direct sign off
• Live proofs of final mailing pack for your sign off
• Once the job is live, we take hourly quality checks. In the unlikely event of a problem, our state-of-the-art processes stop the line until the situation has been resolved

Upgrading Your Direct Mail Strategy, One Letter At A Time

Whether you’re exploring the world of direct mail for the first time or want to change your direct mail partner, ADM is here to help. Our friendly team of direct mail professionals are experts in their field and can help you keep your direct mail cost effective, boost the efficacy of your campaigns and make the best decisions for your broader marketing strategy. We will support your trials and tests to ensure that your mailing format has been optimised, the postage is as low as possible, and the data is clean, segmented and ready to go. To find out how we can help transform your marketing strategy, contact ADM via the link below: