Are Direct Mail Marketing Costs Worth It?

When was the last time you sent an exclusive offer or a brochure by mail to your clients? If you can’t remember, it’s time to do it more often. Direct mail marketing is far from dead.

According to a 2017 survey, this marketing channel has an average return on investment of nearly 30 percent. That’s significantly higher than online display and paid ads.

Furthermore, about four in 10 American consumers look forward to checking their email every day. In fact, approximately 41 percent of those aged 50 to 64 years and 56 percent of those over 65 do so.

Direct mail marketing costs aren’t necessarily higher than those of email or social media marketing. Although postage costs have increased over the past years, print costs have dropped. Additionally, this marketing strategy has a high ROI, so it pays for itself.

Whether you want to build lasting relationships with your clients or drive engagement through personalization, direct mail is the way to go. It’s a proven way to increase customer engagement, build trust, and gain a competitive advantage.

So, what are the advantages of direct mail advertising? Why should choose this marketing channel over others? Read on to find out!

Breaking Down Direct Mail Marketing Costs

Wondering how much does direct mail cost? The answer depends on several things, including what you sell, who your audience is, and what products you’re planning to send by mail. However, direct mail costs might be cheaper than you think.

In fact, direct mail is extremely cost-effective considering it’s the only marketing mean which puts the message right into the consumer’s hands. Conducting a direct mail campaign leads to higher conversion rates, can be easily trackable, and is a personal touch from company to consumer.

The actual price of a direct mail campaign can cost anywhere from 30 cents to more than $10 per person and that’s worth it and rewarding for your business when you have the right message to the right person.

What you sell matters too. For example, if you provide legal services, you’ll most likely send brochures or traditional letters. A company that offers floral arrangements or party dresses will send a colorful postcard, so the price will be higher.

Next, consider your audience. It’s one thing to target existing clients who are familiar with your products, and another thing to reach out to new customers (who may need more information).

Direct mail marketing costs also depend on whether you hire a graphic designer or use pre-made templates for your advertising materials. Some websites offer free templates that users can customize and print with a few clicks.

Other factors that influence the average cost of direct mail advertising include:

• Mailing list selection
• Marketing copy
• Printing and distribution
• Reprints and new designs

The good news is that you can purchase most services at affordable rates. A reliable commercial printing company can assess your needs, provide free samples, and make an offer that fits your budget.

For further savings, consider using wholesale printing services.

Above all, no matter the final price of your direct mail campaign, it will help with brand exposure, increase traffic to your site, and add an extra touch point for your consumers.

Is Direct Mail Really Worth It?

Direct mail isn’t the cheapest marketing channel, but it’s worth the cost.

Think about it: everyone is online in this competitive era. Consumers are tired of having their inboxes flooded with countless emails.

In fact, many of them don’t even bother to read their emails — unless they come from a friend or colleague. Some use advanced spam filters, so they might not even see your message.

Direct mail offers more opportunities for personalization than email. Additionally, it makes it easier to target specific markets based on their age, location, income level, and other criteria.

A staggering 80 percent of customers are more likely to purchase from brands that offer personalized experiences.

Greater privacy, increased brand awareness, and ease of execution are just a few of the many advantages of direct mail. Plus, you can easily measure the results of your marketing efforts without complicated analytics.

Leverage the Power of Direct Mail Marketing

Direct mail adverting has been around for decades — and it won’t go away anytime soon. Use this marketing channel to give your brand a human face, connect with your customers on a more personal level, and make your products stand out.

Interested to know more about direct mail marketing costs? Contact our team to discuss your idea and get a free quote!

From mail fulfillment and data processing services to custom mailing lists, we’ve got you covered!

Direct Mail Response Rates and Other Metrics: How to Measure Your Campaign

Email, social media, and other online advertising get most of the attention in today’s world but old-fashioned direct mail still works like crazy. In fact, direct mail outperforms digital marketing by 37 percent with a house list.

One of the reasons a lot of marketers avoid direct mail is because it takes more work to track everything. But that will work in your favor if you do the work to set up your direct mail campaigns effectively.

Let’s look at how to measure your direct mail response rates and other important metrics.

What Are Direct Mail Response Rates?

The response rate of your mailing is the percentage of people who responded to the offer. For example, if you mail 1,000 packages and 50 people respond, that’s a 5 percent response rate (50 divided by 1,000).

According to the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), the average response rate for house lists is 9 percent and the average rate for prospect lists is 5 percent. There are lots of factors that affect a given campaign including:

• Cost of the offer
• The complexity of the market and product or service
• How well targeted the list is

Conversion Rate vs Response Rate

Conversion rate is another metric that you should always measure on your direct mail campaigns. The conversion rate is the percentage of people who not only responded but also took the offer.

Conversion rates and response rates can sometimes be so similar that you don’t need to track them separately. On lower-cost offers, especially for things that are impulse items, the two numbers will be virtually identical. The only response might be to take the offer.

Tracking the two metrics independently is more important on offers with a higher price or a longer sales cycle where the prospect may take some time to make a buying decision.

How to Measure Your Response and Conversion Rates

Part of what makes online marketing so attractive is the ability to track prospects at almost every step of the sales funnel. It’s easy to pinpoint where a customer first saw your ad or read about your company.

You can do the same thing with direct mail but it takes a bit more planning. The key to direct mail tracking is to make every step identifiable so you can connect a conversion back to the source of that lead.

If your mailing directs the reader to your website for more information, set up a unique landing page for every mailing you send. Instead of directing them to www.yourcompany.com, point them to www.yourcompany.com/product-x-landing-page.

You can also use Google’s Campaign URL Builder tool to create URLs that you can track from within Google Analytics.

The same goes for phone numbers. If the goal of your mailing is to have prospects call you, every mailing should have a unique number whenever possible. The number might forward to your main number but with a unique number, you’ll know how many people called in response to that particular mailing.

You can also use coupon codes, department numbers, extension numbers, or any other unique identifier in your ad. When the prospect calls, ask them for the number.

Creating Direct Mail Campaigns

Getting your campaign set up so you can measure direct mail response rates takes planning and preparation. Once you send the mailing, you can’t go back and make changes the way you can online.

The best way to ensure you’ve got everything in place before the first letter goes out the door is to work with an expert in direct mail campaigns. Modern Mail & Print Solutions can help. We’ve been providing dependable, high-quality services for over 40 years.

Get in touch with us today to get more information about our direct mail marketing services. We’ll help you plan and implement your campaign so you can see exactly what kind of results it’s getting.