Improve your mailing results

Customer acquisition has become a key challenge for marketers.  The good news is there are three ways you can reach more customers with mail- Partially Addressed Mail, Direct mail and Door Drops. 

Many brands face the reality of depleted marketing lists, so attracting new subscribers and increasing customer acquisition has become a top priority. Royal Mail Market Reach has published a guide on 3 Proven ways to boost your acquisition strategy. 

How can mail boost your acquisition strategy?

Mail is a proven channel when it comes to boosting acquisition. Its physical and tactile nature grabs customers’ attention, putting your brand directly into their hands. And it’s this physicality that also means it’s a channel customers remember.

All reasons why mail, as part of a multichannel acquisition strategy, can increase awareness and help drive sales. Even digital first businesses like Google and Amazon use mail in their acquisition campaigns.

1. PARTIALLY ADDRESSED MAIL- Target new customers without requiring their data

Partially Addressed Mail is a highly targeted and responsible way to reach new customers.  Instead of addressing the mailing to an individual, you can target small groups of around 15 carefully selected households. 

There are a couple of ways of targeting new customers – ‘topping up’ and ‘lookalikes’. ‘Topping up’ targets people in postcode areas where you already have customers. ‘Lookalikes’ are simply new postcode areas identified as similar to those where your current customers live.

By combining both ways, you’ll get greater coverage of potential customers, helping to make your campaign successful. Partially Addressed Mail is therefore ideal for achieving targeted reach in specific locations, particularly when combined with other channels.

2. DIRECT MAIL- Reach new customers in a personal way

Direct Mail (DM) is addressed mail sent to a named person. It’s a strong acquisition tool because it opens a one-to-one relationship between your brand and prospective customers. In fact, 70% of people said mail made them feel more valued compared to 30% for email.

Personalisation is one of the reasons why DM has a 94% engagement rate, literally placing your brand into a named individual’s hands.  If you have a database or purchase third party data, make Direct Mail a tactile and engaging part of your multichannel acquisition strategy.

3. DOOR DROPS- Reach more households, locally or nationally

Door drops are a flexible and cost-effective way to get leaflets, flyers and brochures into customers’ hands, either locally or nationally. Their versatility is what makes them so appealing.

Whether you want to achieve a broad reach across a specific area, or nationally across
multiple areas, door drops are a targeted way to find the right people at scale. They’re perfect for things like new store openings, events, or promoting services in your local area.

Door drops work hard, too. Research shows that 90% of campaigns that included door drops saw an increase in new customers, compared to 59% of those without.

In addition, 67% of people were prompted to buy after receiving a door drop. So, it’s no surprise that these mailings can add a healthy boost to your sales.

Conclusion

In a world where acquiring new customers is proving ever more difficult, mail gives you a choice of three flexible and effective ways to boost customer acquisition as part of your marketing mix.

At POSITIVE+ we can manage all aspects of your mail campaign.  From data cleansing and personalisation to printing and postage, we can take care of the whole process to provide a seamless, cost efficient and high-quality campaign.

To bring your creative ideas to life call us today on 020 8544 5500, email hello@wearepositive.com or visit our Direct Mail page for more information.

Download Royal Mail’s 3 Proven ways to boost your acquisition strategy guide at marketreach.co.uk/3ways

The Joint Industry Committee (JIC) for Mail has been created to provide the industry with high valued metrics for advertising mail. The metrics can help to plan your direct mail campaigns.  You will be able to use the same statistics as other media channels and will be able to compare mail and other channels through both frequency and reach.

For Key JICMail Metrics view our infographic here.

The JICMAIL data is collected through tracking the mail activity of around 1,000 households each quarter.

An app was created that allows the participants to take a photo of each piece of mail received within the first week. They then must log this piece of mail including what they do with it straight away and what they do with it over the next three weeks after the first week.

Advertising mail was split into two different categories; addressed mail which is mail addressed to an individual in the household and door drops which is mail with no address on it.

 Key Findings:

• 27% of mail is still “live” after 28 days within the household.
• 21% of all mail items prompt a commercial action.
• 65% of all mail items are opened. Why not 100%? Because not all mail can be opened e.g. leaflets & catalogues.

Addressed Mail:

• 57% of all addressed mail is opened immediately, passed on 1.2 times on average and read 4.2 times by each person on average.
• The average household receives 1.3 items of addressed mail each day. Compare this to their email inboxes – ‘an average office worker receives 121 emails a day’ (Templafy.com).
• Households that comprise couples are more likely to return to their mail, same with 6+ person households

Door Drops:

• For every 100 door drops sent out 10 people will see them.
• The average frequency for door drop interactions is 3.
• Grocery, restaurants and local tradespeople see the highest frequency of re-reading for their door drops.

Positive offers the complete start to finish direct mail service, from data cleansing and management to printing and postage.

To book your free consultation call Sarah Carter, Sales Manager on 020 8544 5500 or email sarah@wearepositive.com

For further information about out more about our direct mail service click here.

For further information about JIC Mail visit https://www.jicmail.org.uk/

 

Getting all of your deliveries in time for when you need them is always a major struggle. Unfortunately, this struggle is only worsened when you add Christmas to the equation. With everyone looking to get their parcels and deliveries done before the big day, delivery services everywhere will be in a mad rush to make sure that everybody is happy. Getting your deliveries to go overseas can be even more strife, since this usually takes a bit longer than most deliveries. However, there are services that allow easier parcel forwarding from the UK, and you may want to have a look at some if you’re desperate to get your parcel to its destination in time for Christmas. Thankfully, Royal Mail have announced UK and International posting dates for Christmas 2017 to keep everybody in the loop:

UK Last Posting Dates Christmas 2017

UK Business Contract Services

Tuesday 19^th December – Royal Mail 48

Wednesday 20 December – Royal mail Tracked 48, Royal 24

Thursday 21^st December – Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed, Royal Mail Tracked 24

Friday 22^nd December – Royal mail Special Delivery, Saturday Guaranteed 48

International Last Posting Dates Christmas 2017

International Standard and all International Tracking and Signature service

Saturday 2^nd December – Africa, Middle East

Wednesday 6^th December – Asia, Cyprus, Far East, Eastern Europe (not including Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia)

Thursday 7^th December – Caribbean, Central and South America

Saturday 9^th December – Australia, Greece, New Zealand

Wednesday 13^th December – Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Poland

Thursday 14^th December – Canada, Finland, Sweden, USA

Friday 15^th December – Austria, Denmark, Iceland, Portugal, Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland

Saturday 16^th December – Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg

For further information visit https://www.royalmail.com/sites/default/files/rm-latest-posting-dates-christmas-2017.pdf

At Positive we can help get your Christmas mailings out on time. To discuss your Christmas campaign or to request a quote, please contact Danny Sullivan, Managing Director on 020 8544 5500 or email danny@wearepositive.com

ISO 27001 is the Information Security Management Standard.  Accredited organisations assess and prevent information security risks and safeguard their customer’s data and information.

Why choose an ISO 27001 printer?

Choosing an ISO 27001 accredited printer will:-

• Keep your data secure
• Protect your reputation
• Reduce errors and costs
• Ensure legal obligations are met
• Manage and minimise risk exposure

Certified organisations are committed to continuous improvement and are assessed annually to ensure progress is being maintained.

Positive achieved ISO 27001 accreditation in 2016.  We offer a complete start to finish direct mail solution, from data cleansing and management to printing and postage.

Our Surrey based factory provides the full range of integrated print services including digital printing, lithographic printing, large format printing and direct mail.

For further information, please contact Danny Sullivan, Managing Director on 020 8544 5500 or email danny@wearepositive.com

 

Related articles: –

• Positive-invests-in-cygnus
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The Direct Mail sector is worth £15.2 billion in the UK, however despite the maturity of the sector 20 million mail pieces are still being incorrectly mailed each month costing businesses an estimated £200-£300m annually.

Direct mail waste leads to poorer response rates, unhappy customers and increased overall campaign costs.

Lean Direct Mail (Lean DM) is a concept developed by The Software Bureau as a systematic process for mail providers to minimise waste and maximise results and ROI of mail campaigns for their clients.

5 TIPS TO ACHIEVE LEAN DIRECT MAIL

1. Pack Design

Up to 34% of postage costs could be saved by optimising the pack design to maximise discounts. Your direct mail provider should advise you on the cost differences between pack sizes, weights and formats.

2. Postage Discounts

Postage is often the most expensive part of direct mail campaigns. Downstream Access providers (DSAs) can provide discounted services, whilst opening a Royal Mail business account enables access to volume discounts.

3. Data Formatting

Incorrectly formatted addresses can result in adjustment charges, whilst addresses sourced from CRM and online data capture often include incomplete or missing data. The Postcode Address File (PAF) can be incorporated into many systems to verify and enhance your address data.

4. Data Quality

Around 1.5 million households move and 500,000 people die each year in the UK. Mailing to these people is not only costly but reflects badly on your brand. Data cleansing software such as Cygnus can identify and remove deceased, gone away and duplicate records. If you want, you can do your own self-service data preparation with companies such as Paxata to clean up spare data.

5. Returns Handling

On average 40% of returned mail is due to recipients wishing to opt out from mailings. Maintaining a customer suppression file is not only good practice, but will help you to improve your targeting for your next campaign.

About Positive

This blog was bought to you by Positive Images UK. We are an ISO 27001 and DMA accredited print and direct mail specialist based in Central London and Surrey.

Our direct mail services include design advice, printing, personalisation, stock management, postage, PAF verification, Cygnus data processing & cleansing, client suppression and returns handling.

Click here to find out more about our direct mail service.

How can we help?

To find out more about how our experience can help you:

Call us on 020 8544 5500 or email hello@wearepositive.com

Sources

• DMA Putting a price on direct marketing
• DMA Advertising Mail Guide

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