Direct mail is experiencing a surge in adoption as rising advertising costs, digital fatigue, and privacy concerns have made it harder to convert target audiences online.
Businesses are turning to direct mail to bypass digital challenges and connect directly with their ideal customers. This shift is particularly notable among newcomers to direct mail—over half of all direct mail campaigns in 2023 were launched by businesses using it for the first time.
Whether you're exploring direct mail for the first time or refining your approach, this guide is designed to help optimize your strategy, maximize ROI, and get your brand directly into the hands of target audiences.
- Advantages of Direct Mail Marketing
- How to Create Personalized Direct Mail Campaigns
- How to Target the Right Audience with Direct Mail
Advantages of Direct Mail Marketing
People have been bombarded with emails, social media ads, pop-ups, and ad-infested websites for years.
As a result, the sheer volume of digital advertising has led to digital fatigue, distrust, and privacy concerns that have diluted the impact of digital marketing efforts.
- 75% of consumers experience digital fatigue.
- 77% of businesses said they would reduce digital media spending due to eroding trust in social media.
- 85% of marketers are adjusting their digital marketing budgets due to data privacy concerns
The result? 76% of marketers reported higher conversion rates with direct mail, and businesses saw a 27% increase in direct mail-generated revenue in 2023. Building on this success, 82% of businesses further increased their direct mail budgets in 2024.
While direct mail is an extremely effective marketing channel, it's not as easy as simply sending thousands of generic postcards addressed to "Current Resident."
How to Create Personalized Direct Mail Campaigns
One of the biggest trends in marketing strategies over the past few years has been personalization.
- 93% of businesses saw an increase in revenue when they focused on an advanced personalization strategy.
- 85% of consumers say personalization makes them more likely to open direct mail.
Personalization is a pivotal component of successful direct mail campaigns; simply adding a recipient’s first name to a mail piece can increase response rates by 135%.
However, personalization requires personal information (a.k.a. customer data).
Businesses with good customer data can leverage a digital printing technology called variable data printing to hyper-target and personalize direct mail campaigns.
How? Variable data printing uses data from your CRM to personalize each mail piece to the individual recipient.
It’s important to remember that variable data printing allows for the personalization of much more than just the recipient’s first name. Names, text, special offers, images, and designs can be changed from one printed piece to the next.
For example, a real estate agent could use variable data printing to send a hyper-targeted direct mail lead gen campaign to potential clients in different neighborhoods, customizing each mailer with local market statistics, available property listings, and personalized greetings based on the recipient's name and address.
How to Target the Right Audience with Direct Mail
In a perfect marketing world, it would be easy to gather and maintain comprehensive data on target audiences and current customers. However, gathering and maintaining such data can be a major challenge.
If your business lacks prospect and customer data, you can still use EDDM or mailing lists to hyper-target your ideal audience.
Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) is a service offered by USPS that allows businesses to send direct mail campaigns to every address within a specified geographic area (no data required).
For example, a car dealership can use EDDM to hyper-target audience segments based on neighborhood demographics.
For neighborhoods with a high percentage of families, the mail piece features an image of a family-friendly vehicle and messaging about the vehicle's safety features.
For neighborhoods in urban areas, the mail piece content focuses on compact vehicles with messaging focused on fuel efficiency and ease of city parking.
EDDM is ideal for targeting residential or geographic audience segments. Mailing lists, on the other hand, allow for the targeting of individual recipients.
Mailing lists are typically created through market research and customer data analysis. These lists include specific recipient data, such as names, gender, age, interests, purchasing behavior, income, occupation, industry, and other details. Though more expensive than EDDM, they provide more granular information and allow for more targeted personalization.
About Artisan Colour
At Artisan Colour, our comprehensive suite of direct mail marketing services includes everything from mailpiece design and printing to addressing, inserting, tracking, and delivery. Our expertise extends to specialized areas, like personalized direct mail, variable data printing, mailing list management, and integrated marketing solutions.
