The average direct mail piece is skimmed or read by 80 percent of recipients and 73 percent of households prefer to receive product offers and announcements via direct mail — this is compared to the 18 percent of people who prefer email announcements (DMA Statistical Factbook.)

Today, we will discuss a few ways to increase the return on your marketing investment by including QR codes, Variable Data Printing and personalized URLs (pURLs) on your next direct mail piece.

QR Codes. QR codes provide you with multiple benefits.  The first is that QR codes have a highly engaged audience.  Once a user scans the QR code on your direct mail piece you have a few moments of their undivided attention and can communicate additional information that you did not include on your printed piece.

QR codes also allow you to track what your audience is most interested in by monitoring what is viewed the most or which links had the highest click-through rates.  Furthermore, QR codes and print’s benefits compliment each other perfectly, with QR codes being a highly engaging medium and print having a higher read rate than digital media.  Finally, QR codes give you real-time feedback,, which allows you to update your campaign in real-time as well.

Variable Data Printing (VDP.) Variable Data Printing can also be used when you create your next direct mail piece.  Using your database information you can create unique and personalized direct mail pieces to targeted portions audience.  This not only increases your return on investment, but it also decreases your overall marketing costs, as you are able to filter your list into multiple segments and weed out the people who would most likely purchase and those who most likely would not — allowing you to send fewer messages to a more targeted and precise audience.

Personalized URLs (pURLs.) pURLs have similar benefits as VDP in that they allow you to personalize your message.  But, with pURLs you’re able to create an individual landing page for each of your recipients.  By doing this you’re not only able to generate a better experience for the user, but you’re also able to track, on an individual basis, what each person is most interested in; helping you build your database for future campaigns.

Integrating multiple media messages allows you to increase your overall ROI and your ability to track, analyze and measure the success of your marketing campaign.  It also benefits your customers and potential customers in that it decreases the amount of unwanted messages they receive because you’re able to create and send fewer, more targeted messages based on their general likes and dislikes.

Timothy Freeman
President
Print & Graphic Communications Association