Zip Code Targeting with Direct Mail
The days of sending out enormous direct mail campaigns to every residential address in a city are long gone. Not only is this direct mail tactic ineffective, but it is also costly. Today, helpful tools allow for zip code targeting on your direct mail campaigns where mailers are only sent to residents who fall into specific demographic categories. Zip code targeting with direct mail saves money and time while ensuring that your campaigns are received by those most likely to be interested in your business or organization.
Who benefits from zip code targeting?
For-profit operations in a variety of industries benefit from zip code targeting including those in healthcare, dentistry, legal practices, retail stores, restaurants, and service-based businesses like house cleaning, accounting, and home maintenance.
Zip code targeting isn’t just for businesses and corporations. Higher education and vocational institutions enjoy excellent results by targeting specific demographics within a zip code. Non-profit organizations also benefit from zip code targeting—especially when it comes to fundraising campaigns and the announcement of community events.
What kinds of demographics can I target with direct mail?
Using tools like EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail from the USPS), you can filter residents within a zip code by data like household size, household income, and age. Other consumer databases offer even more information including whether children are present within a household.
Here are some helpful examples of how targeting these demographic categories can help improve the response rates on your campaigns.
Age: Knowing the general age groups within a household can help you determine which recipients to mail campaigns to. For example, services and businesses catering to seniors should target households with members 55 years and older. Age groups also help marketers personalize their messaging. Statistically speaking, people over the age of 35 have more purchasing power. This means that luxury goods are likely to be more well-received by this age group than by households with people in their early 20s or more advanced years.
Household Size: A household’s size can reveal a lot to marketers. In most cases, houses with several residents often tend to be budget-conscious consumers or multigenerational families. Businesses catering to consumers on tight budgets can benefit from targeting larger household sizes.
Income Level: Knowing the income range of direct mail recipients can go a long way with developing your mailing lists and brand messaging. For instance, let’s say you run a day spa that offers pampering services like full-body massages and facials. Targeting households with very low-income levels is likely going to result in less-than-ideal response rates. Your ideal demographic would likely be people with middle class incomes, people with spouses, and/or those over the age of 30.
Presence of Children: Whether a household has children is critical information for businesses that operate in healthcare and dentistry as well as retail and service-based businesses that provide clothing, haircuts, tutoring, extracurricular activities, and more to children. The presence of children is also helpful for businesses and organizations that offer support to busy parents such as convenience-based services like housekeeping, dry cleaning, and general home maintenance.
Zip code targeting with direct mail can make a world of difference in the success of your campaigns. Analyzing consumer demographics in your area can also improve your business or organization’s messaging. The pros at Pel Hughes work with businesses, organizations, and higher education institutions throughout the United States. We offer full-service printing, graphic design, campaign automation, and database services to ensure that your direct mail campaigns are as successful as possible. Give our experts a call at (504) 486-8646 to learn more.
