HOME
INDUSTRY
LISTS & SERVICES
LEARNING CENTER
ABOUT
CONTACT
REQUEST A QUICK QUOTE

Posts Tagged ‘Direct Mail Marketing’

Direct Mail Outlook Optimistic

February 5th, 2009

As I’ve been asking around about the future holds for direct mail service providers and have been getting the general consensus that business is good.  This week a slump in retail sales and the USPS considering shorting their delivery days to 5 per week, it’s no wonder many are concerned.  But in conversations I’ve had this week, I mostly hear about the ice, snow, and blistering cold.  I do hear that acquisition mail (those campaigns to cold prospects) are down, but listening to the voice of mail service providers throughout the country, business is maintaining and businesses are continuing their direct mail campaigns.

I’ve been also polling the data providers.  With this group I’ve been hearing a mixed bag of response.  For some, those who in the past have focused on one industry vertical, business is flat.  They are reaching for numbers and working on developing new vertical markets to penetrate.  For those mail service providers who’ve not put their eggs all in one basket, business is stead and growing.

The direct mail marketing industry is considered a “recession-proof” industry.  When the economy is good, businesses use direct mail, when the economy is faulting, smart businesses spend more on advertising.  But there is a threshold where the economy can be so bad that all businesses suffer, including those involved providing direct mail marketing services.

Currently, I would argue that we are not nearly close to an economic downturn that forces businesses to stop advertising.  But I would say that the conditions are different in that our financial lending system is broken and because of it, businesses which borrow money to make payroll must draw money from other area’s such as advertising.

As of today, President Obama’s newest stimulus package is being weighed.  The BBC reports conflicting views on nationalizing our banking system.  Large bank CEO’s are seen as taking bonus’s while the rest of us suffer.  Issues in the Middle East continue to grow more and more complex.  And Steeler Nation has temporarily distracted us from all of it.

I believe we have tremendous opportunity in this county to “rebrand” America, truly develop renuable energy that will create new jobs, and prospect is high in bringing our service men and women back home.  For this and so many other reasons, I remain optimistic.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Ethnic DM, Opinion - Misc., Uncategorized | No Comments »

It’s here. The Apartment Complex Database

January 20th, 2009

Yes, it’s here.  Sought after for some time, the apartment complex database has been asked for time and time again and now we have it.  If you’re a mailer looking to target those individuals who rent and live within a particular apartment complex, provide us with the complex name and zip code it resides, and BB Direct will produce the addresses for these dwellers.

We can also sort by rent amount such that if you were to provide a list of zip codes and ask for apartment complexes with an average rental income of, say $800/month or greater, we’ll do it.  Here you would get all addresses within the complex, whether the rental income is below or above.  This select will allow you the ability to hone in on only those complex dwellers which best suit your offer.

The apartment complex mailing list doesn’t normally come with the current name of the resident.  It will typically read, “Resident”.  But for a small additional fee, we can append names where available to personalize your mailing list.  Currently, the national average of name coverage is about 77% of the file.

This mailing list is ideal for home builders and Realtors looking for specific renters who may be in the market for a new home.  Other popular offers are mortgage lenders, restaurants, pizza & dry cleaning delivery, gym memberships, and an assortment of retail shopping offers.

If you would like to learn more about this or other mailing list targeting we offer, visit us at BB Direct or call one of our mailing list representatives at (866) 501-6273.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Buying a Mailing List

January 8th, 2009

When embarking on your first direct mail campaign, it’s imperative that you think through all facets of the campaign.  From creative, to offer, to keeping your message congruent with the other advertising mediums.  Below are some of the more important points to remember when creating a mailing list.  Do it right the first time may mean the difference between a positive ROI or never testing direct mail again.

Here are seven very important points to remember:

1.  Know your customer
The absolute best way to understand your best prospects is to understand your current best customers.  You as a business owner can describe in detail what your customer looks like based on his or her attributes and need for your product or service.  But the key here is to be able to describe your customer in terms that are relevant to a mailing list broker.  If a mailing list broker is unable to build a criteria set that describes your best customer, then no matter how well you’ll be able to describe this person, you won’t be able to find more just like it.  As an example, let’s say you’re in the business of selling high-end office furniture.  You may describe your best customer as one who desires to have the most cutting edge modern attractive desk-system on the market.  Your customer may buy your office furniture products because they want to impress their clientele.  Your office furniture is a direct reflection of what your customers want their clientele to think of them…modern, classy, cutting edge.  Though this is a very clear description of what why your clients might buy your products over the competitor, the description is better suited for the direct mail marketers’ creative team that will assemble a congruent message and offer to your direct mail prospects.  A better description would sound something more that this.  “My customers are businesses such as law offices, CPA’s, Real Estate investment trusts, and a personal banker whose business employee’s greater than 50 employees’.  These customers businesses that are both new and established, but the decision maker is usually the owner located at the headquarter location.”  Notice the identifiers that describe this business clientele are consistent with the filters available from a business mailing lists database.

2.  Provide your mailing list broker with an accurate description of your product or offer.
The broker may have suggestions as to the type of list that would best suite your needs.  Most mailing list brokers can offer suggestions based on the available selects of the databases they typically use.  If you’re unsure of the filters (selects) available on a particular database, your mailing list broker should be able to offer you a data card that describes in detail these selects as well as the pricing for these selects.  In summary, a well informed list broker has a greater chance of helping his direct mail marketer.

3.  Know the difference is a response and a compiled mailing list.
-Response mailing lists are comprised of individuals who have responded to an offer either through the mail, phone, and television or through other means of mass communication.
-Compiled mailing lists are a compilation of information from public records and sources such as the phone book, courthouse records, bankruptcy filings, mortgage deed records and more.
The more you understand the differences with the various available mailing lists, the better you’ll be able to use them to your advantage.  The primary reason for understanding the difference between these two mailing lists is because the compiled mailing list will naturally contain more records per a given geography.  Should your market territory be finite, the available compiled mailing list data will be larger in number than the response file type mailing lists.  Likewise, if your market territory has no boundaries, your ideal mailing list is one in which those individuals have already responded favorably to an interest or offer such as yours.  Though the mailing list data usually costs more, response files are typically considered more responsive.

4.  Database analysis
The more you know about your internal mailing list of customers, the better you’ll be able to communicate to them.  A database analysis is a process where by you provide your customer names and addresses be evaluated.  The process is completely automated and relatively secure.  What is done is your internal customer mailing list is passed against a large universe mailing list.  This universe mailing list contains all the deliverable addresses within the U.S.  This mailing list database contains not only the name and the address, but also any demographic and psychographic information available on the records.  Wherever there is a match of the two mailing list databases, all the relative elements of information is temporary appended to your database.  The processor then looks for patterns within the appended data for what kinds of mailing list conclusions can be made.  This profile “snap-shot” is then compared with the “profile” of the resident consumers within the same market territory of your mailing list.  Ultimately, we are looking for a comparison of what your customers “look like” relative to the people in the same relative area that are not your customers.  We are also looking for how your customers “look differently” from the surrounding population.  The more we can tell about your customers the better.  Ultimately, we want to find other people within the area that are not customers but look identical to them.  The theory is that if we were to mail to those people who look most similar to your existing customers, the better changes are that they will become customers themselves.

5.  Mail piece versioning
Understand your customers’ needs and desires and speak to them in a manner that is specific or special them.  Not all people are the same.  Imagine walking to your own mail box tomorrow afternoon.  You reach in and find a postcard inviting you to a new restaurant in your area.  We’ve all received these types of postcards with some that appeal to us more than others.  What would this post include that would truly grab your attention?  The answer to this question is most likely different for you than it is for your neighbor.  For a young family, the piece might include a picture of a happy family enjoying a dinner out together.  The copy highlights the importance of getting the family out together and how this new restaurant caters to family dinning.  For a middle aged successful single female professional, the same mail piece may be a turn-off and would be quickly tossed in the trash.  But should the postcard include a photo of a group of other like aged singles enjoying dinner together with an emphasis on entrée’s that peak the interest of the most sophisticated palate, this mail piece might entice the single female to the very same restaurant as the young family.
With today’s variable print technology, each mail piece can be different in accordance to the recipient of the piece itself.  The customization can be as different as the graphic designer is willing to make it.  And generally speaking, the more your mail piece is versioned to the targeted audience, the better your direct mail response will be.  The ideal mailing list for such variable print mailings a “segmentation” type mailing list.  Segmentation mailing lists classify people into naturally occurring subsets of the population.  A restaurant’s market territory might include a 10 mile radius and within this territory, there might be 12 primary segments of the population.  Mailing the same general mail piece and offer to all 12 segments is less effective than mailing 12 versions of the same mail piece.

6.  Testimonials
A growing business can never have too many raving fans and a mail piece can always benefit with testimonials.  At the risk of cluttering a direct mail piece, relevant testimonials help a business establish trust, especially if the one providing the testimonial is a well known celebrity or a well branded business.

7.  Response measurement
It cannot be stressed enough to design a response measurement mechanism in your direct mail campaign.  Without measuring how many responders or orders have been achieved as a direct result from your direct mail investment, you will never know how effective this investment is as it compares to other advertisement mediums.  Direct mail measurement can be measured several different ways, i.e., responders, buyers, foot-traffic into the store location, actual gross revenue directly attributed to the campaign, gross profit directly attributed to the campaign, and the potential lifetime value of the responders/buyers/donors of a campaign.  Whatever the method of measurement, quantifying your response will help both in justifying a second test campaign to ultimately investing more or less into direct mail marketing.

To learn more about how to maximize your direct mail return on investment, visit http://www.bbdirect.com or call us at (866) 501-6273.  If it’s mortgage related, you may also want to visit www.triggerleadsdirect.com or www.armresetleads.com.

Tags: , ,
Posted in DM Data 101 | No Comments »

Planning your Direct Mail Campaign

December 10th, 2008

When planning your next direct mail campaign, there are a number of items a direct mail marketer should not do without.  The key to success with any direct mail marketing campaign is the preparation.  Before you begin, be sure you know what your costs will be, that you’re matching your direct mail piece with your mailing list audience, and that you measure your direct mail response.

Keeping within budget
Every direct mail campaign will have costs that change from time to time.  The paper cost your mail piece is printed on will change from year to year, the postage cost continues to rise, and your mailing list cost adjusts as well.  But don’t forget, your time.  The more time you spend on each of these campaigns, the more they cost.  All these costs, whether they are true dollars, or extra time spent do to lack of preparation, affect your bottom-line return on investment from the sales leads your campaign produces.

So let’s start with your mailing list.  When determining the total number of mail pieces you want to mail, make sure you have an ideal mailing list to target.  Don’t assume there’s an infinite number of people to mail to that’s ideal for your product or service.  If you’ve got a limited budget, does it make sense to mail to a more targeted audience, or try to reach as many people on the smallest budget.  The biggest mistake business owners make is that though they know and understand their market better than anyone, they rarely understand their direct mail marketing.  Talk with marketing business that’s doing the printing and/or letter shop and get as many different viewpoints as possible on this subject.

Once you’ve narrowed down your ideal mailing list audience and feel comfortable with the best test quantity, tally up your direct mail campaigns printing, mailing, and postage costs.  Be sure to include those small costs involved with the entire campaign such as cost for the creative design work you’ll have done for the direct mail piece.  Also include the cost to include a live stamp on your “standard rate” postage if you’re going to include this on your direct mail piece.  And finally, don’t forget the cost of measurement vehicle.  Are you going to include a Business Reply Mail card attached to each of your direct mail pieces?  If so, how many are you expecting to come back?  Remember, you’ll be paying a premium for postage on those return replies.  What other kind of costs are involved with measuring your response?

Match the mail piece with the audience
Before you assume you know what you want to offer on your direct mail piece, be sure it matches the mailing list audience you plan to mail to.  Depending on who you are mailing to, you may want to have a talk with your mailing list broker to see if you can learn more about the people on the mailing list you’re about to test.  Let’s say you’re an outdoor lighting company offering specialty residential lighting to high-end homes.  If your budget allows you to mail to all homeowners with a home value of $500,000 or greater and your list broker runs a count and determines there are over 25,000 homeowners that fit that criteria, consider mailing multiple versions of your direct mail piece that more appropriately communicates to a particular segment of the mailing list.  Your mailing list broker can tell you which of those homeowners are within the senior market as compared with those that are homes with children or homes where the owner lives in another states the majority of the time.  Knowing this before hand, you’re now able to include different photography of the people on the direct mail piece that better fit who will receive your offer.  Depending on the city you’re mailing into, you may find that there are just as many homes with a value of $500,000 to $750,000, as there are with the value of $1,000,000 to $2,000,000+.  It’s not difficult to assume that the home lighting needs in those two home value ranges don’t greatly differ.  Make an offer that better addresses the two audiences and spell this out those direct mail pieces that reach this audience.

The same holds true when using your own internal customer mailing list.  Even though you know who your customers are, with the help of a good mailing list broker, you can append certain types of mailing list element data to your internal customer mailing list.  Doing so allows you to see if there are any patterns or groupings within your own customer mailing list.  If so, you may be able to capitalize on this knowledge by mailing a different offer to one group over another, or at least a different mail piece creative version.

Communicate, measure, and record
Consider the communication thread that’s taking place to your direct marketing audience.  Ideally it’s a two way street.  The more two way conversation you can have with your customers and prospects, the better.  Each time you hear from them, you learn something.  Record this information, no matter how trivial and use it to your advantage.  The more your prospects and customers know that you understand them, the more they’ll appreciate you a business product or service provider.

Measuring response is important to testing any direct mail campaign, but don’t stop there.  Measure the responder too who responded but didn’t buy.  Ask yourself what they all have in common and see if you can draw any conclusions to this commonality.  You may find that they are all located around your competition or all within a certain age and income bracket.  If so, plan not to include that age and income bracket on your next campaign, or consider mailing and alternate direct mail piece to that segment of the population the next time.

Also consider mailing over and over within the same geographic territory.  In doing so, you might learn that some segments of the mailing list population response on the first drop, while the greatest response occurs between 2 and 4 drops.  The more you can measure your direct mail campaigns, the better able you are to improving your direct mail return on your investment.

Tags: , ,
Posted in DM Data Advanced | No Comments »

Defining Your Target Audience

December 10th, 2008

Careful consideration should be taken when determining who your direct mail audience is.  You may have the ideal direct mail offer that pulls at the heart strings of a good prospect, but if mailed to the wrong audience, the mail piece may end is zero sales leads.  Likewise, mailing to the perfect audience and with a lack-luster offer could also end in little to no sales lead response.

One way to define your direct mail audience is to through mailing list data modeling.  Data modeling is a process of using a mailing list of existing good customers to better understand who to mail to in order to find new customers.  Done correctly, data modeling can segment your existing customers as defined by what they’ve purchased, how frequent they purchase, and how much they spend.  The more transactional and response measurement you’ve recorded on your existing customer database, the better you’ll be able to not only build a better mailing list for future mailings but you’ll also be able to mail these new prospects the more likely offer they’ll respond to.

This data modeling process is done by using your existing mailing list of “good customers”, those names and addresses of existing customers, and defining which mailing list records purchase Product A vs. Product B, which mailing list records purchase 12 times a year vs. which purchase twice a years, and which have purchased year after year vs. which purchased just once then disappeared.  The names and address of this mailing list are then matched to a master database of all the names and addresses in the entire U.S.  Any demographic or psychographic information contained on those matched records on the master file are recorded and evaluated.  The data modeling demographer attempts to draw conclusions by looking for patterns within the various transactional segments provided.

Also considered is the patterned of differences found but evaluating those residence within the various geographic markets found on the internal customer mailing list.  How do the direct mail marketer customers look differently to those residences within the same market?  The more defined these similarities and differences become, the better the direct mail marketer can size up who they will want to mail to in the future.  They may discover that the existing customers all have a specific income and child age within the household.  Knowing that, one can now identify other “look-alike” households in the same area and spend more direct mail dollars mailing just them.

Tags: , ,
Posted in DM Data Advanced | No Comments »

Does Direct Mail Work?

December 9th, 2008

An argument for direct mail marketing

With all the new digital mediums vying for your attention, the emotional impact each one can make becomes less and less.  But postal direct mail holds strong and delivers the same impact, same connection, and same profitable response as ever before.

Millions of Americans continue to receive their bills in the mail and as they do, the physical commercial advertisement in the form of direct mail also continues to stay in your view.  They touch it, they see it, and they look through it.

Every day, the postal delivery person brings your mail to you at approximately the same time and most likely every American walks up to his or her mail box, opens it, and pulls out a hand full of new information.  You need only go to your mail box once a day to receive it.  Unlike email, postal direct mail doesn’t arrive periodically throughout the day, but instead, it comes to you at one time and only one time.

And because postal direct mail is more expensive than email marketing, not everyone it doing it.  Those who are will continue to get better at doing it.  They’ll continue to strive to build the most ideal mailing list.  Those successful direct mail marketers will remove names and addresses of people who simply do not respond and continually attempt to add people who look more and more like their own good customers.  Thus, we continue to receiving only those direct mail pieces that are relevant to us.  We may not respond to every piece that comes through to our mail box, but compared to the mountain of email spam that we do receive on a daily basis, direct mail marketers mail more relevant direct mail to a more responsive audience than email marketing.  We end up receiving more interesting offers from companies who understand us.

The key to improving your direct mail marketing is in the continual refinement of the mailing list.  Working with a good mailing list broker who has experience and technical know how will improve your chances for success, and help you avoid mailing to the wrong people.

Tags:
Posted in DM Data 101 | No Comments »