Direct mail, with its ability to be placed right into the consumer’s home, is more likely to be read over email messages from brands.  Over the past ten years, direct mail response rates have been on the rise, whereas email marketing response rates have been declining. To create direct mail messages that are more likely to get responses from your target market, we created a few tips for better direct mail marketing.

1. Segmentation
Segmenting your database allows you to filter your target audience into groups with similar purchasing habits or demographics – by doing so you can create messages that are extremely targeted and relevant to a specific group in your target audience.

Segmenting and analyzing your database will decrease your overhead costs and you will be more likely to see an increase in your response rate.  Studies have shown different increase rates when using personalization, but all of the studies demonstrated a significant increase with personalized marketing.

2.  Interactive Print
Another aspect to consider when creating your mailing is to offer multiple ways for the recipient to respond to your message.  While you should only  have one, clear call-to-action, having more than one way for the consumer to respond is beneficial to increasing response rates.

Personalized URLs and QR codes are excellent tools to include in your campaign.  Not only do they make it easy for your audience to respond to the call-to-action, but they also enable you to track and measure who is responding and what the user seems most interested in — allowing you to create more targeted messages in the future and follow up with potential consumers accordingly.

3.  Overall Design
Finally, don’t forget the presentation.  Direct mail is unique in that it’s sent right to your consumer’s hands.  Because direct mail is tangible, using thicker paper or glossy stock can help to instantly associate a high quality image of your brand in the consumer’s mind.

The design itself is also essential – a picture is worth a thousand words — having a relevant graphic or photo is just as essential as creating individualized text. Create something that is visually appealing.  Images and graphics can also be personalized with Variable Data Printing (VDP) and should be based on what your target audience would find most relevant and enticing.

Timothy Freeman
President
Print & Graphic Communications Association