Are you currently measuring the success of your direct mail campaigns? Are you able to tie revenue back to the direct mail campaign that sent it?
If you’re unsure of either of these questions, you’re not the only business that has little to no idea how effective their direct mail campaigns are in achieving specific results.
Many companies, businesses, and professionals view direct mail as a kind of message in a bottle that you set adrift into the proverbial sea. Once it’s dropped off at the post office, that’s the end of their involvement. When they see an uptick in monthly revenue, clients, or patients, they automatically assume it was because of the direct mail campaign.
We’re going to give you 4 actionable tips you can use to start measuring your direct mail investment. As you start working to put these tips into action, you might find areas of your direct mail campaign that you could tweak for improved performance.
The golden rule to measuring a campaign is to take a high-level approach and measure what’s important and measure it consistently.
Personalized URLs (PURLs)
A
PURL is a unique website address that is created specifically for each person you send direct mail to. Each person gets their own URL and landing page.
Eg:
www.MyBusiness.com/John.Doe
www.MyBusiness.com/Jane.Smith
The landing page would be personalized for each person. You as the business owner can track the activity of both John and Jane to better gauge the effectiveness of the mail campaign.
The benefits of using a PURL in your direct mail marketing campaign are:
- Getting increased response rates by getting them to go online
- Responses can be tracked in real time and instant email alerts will allow you to follow up and engage with respondents.
- A PURL acts as a call-to-action. Instead of them driving to your place of business, they can easily hop online to visit your website. This will allow you to collect more information about them that you can use to improve the performance of future direct mail campaigns.
Unique Offer ID’s
A unique offer ID can be printed on the mailer through
variable data printing. When the recipient of the mailer presents the unique offer ID at time of purchase, you can easily track and trace back to individual mailing campaigns.
You can also create exclusive offers based on other data you have about your prospects. For example, if you’re a CPA and are sending out a direct mail campaign to remind your clients to start gathering tax information for the upcoming tax season, you can include an offer about bookkeeping services that you offer to those clients who might benefit the most from it.
QR Codes
A
QR Code is a kind of two-dimensional barcode can be scanned with a cell phone camera. Once scanned, it will take the user to a pre-determined website where you can collect their information via a form or promote an offer or service.
The website you send them to will need to be optimized for mobile. The landing page and subsequent clicks can directly be tied back to the original direct mail campaign that sent them there.
Many companies offer a “lead magnet” to encourage people to fill out a form and leave their email and other personalized information. The lead magnet could be a white paper or a freebie offer that can be downloaded or redeemed after they fill out a form with the personalized information that you would require.
In-Person Marketing
Prior to the internet, this is how many companies measured the success of direct mail campaigns. It requires the person to bring in the mailer, or at the very least mention a code or offer. This way is much less technical than sending someone to a website, but it often works well for those businesses in which in-person sales is how they land business.
Direct Mail Marketing Services in Raleigh
At AlphaGraphics of Downtown Raleigh, we specialize in Direct Mail services for all industries including schools, non-profits, businesses, special events, churches, community organizations and more. These services include postcards, self-mailers, lead letters, mailing lists, dimensional mailers, catalogs and many other types of direct mail printing.
If you would like to learn more about
direct mail marketing services in Raleigh, or need help tracking and measuring your direct mail campaigns, give us a call at (919) 832-2828 or send us an email. AlphaGraphics of Downtown Raleigh can help design, create, and manage your next direct mail marketing campaign.