3 Best Practices for Direct Mail

As a marketer, you may not know that there are many tools and technologies available to help your company execute successful direct mail efforts. Using tools such as variable data printing, personalized URLs, and personalized QR Codes can easily create measurable campaigns.

If you are looking to personalize direct mail pieces for your customers, here are three ideas worth considering.

Consider the location of the recipient and design the materials accordingly.

By taking a look at the recipient’s location, you should be able to identify a data element that could be converted to personalized content. For example, if you are sending direct mail to promote your retail store, gym, or another physical location, you could personalize the piece to show just how close the person is to that spot. This could be represented graphically, via a map, or simply in text (i.e. “you are less than 2 miles away!”)

If you are targeting previous customers, appeal to that and possibly reference the product or service they purchased.

If we are sending direct mail pieces to our existing customers, we truly have no excuse not to personalize our materials. Take the time to look at their purchase history. With that data, you should be able to ensure that the promotions and offers on your direct mail piece are truly relevant to them.

Based on demographics, select color(s) that may appeal to each group.

This one may take a bit more research and creativity. But there certainly are studies out there regarding the effect that certain colors may have on different groups of people. If you can find a way to use the right ones for the segments inside of your target audience, you should be able to increase your response rates.