How to Track and Measure Direct Mail Success

After you have sent out your direct mail campaign, tracking and measuring its success is essential. This will help you understand your efforts’ effectiveness and determine whether your direct mail investment was worth it. Here are some tips for tracking and measuring the success of a direct mail campaign:

Tracking your direct mail campaigns

Using QR codes

QR codes are a great way to track the success of your direct mail marketing campaigns. By using QR code in your mailers, you can easily track who opened the mailer, when they opened it, and what actions they took after opening it. This data can be used to measure the effectiveness of your campaign and provide valuable insights on how to improve its performance. 

The first step in using QR codes for direct mail campaigns is to generate custom QR code for each mail you send.

Once you’ve created the appropriate QR codes, print them out on the pieces of mail you want to send out and attach them securely so that they are easy for recipients to scan. Make sure the placement of the code is visible – like on an envelope flap or near a logo – and make sure that there is enough room around it, so it doesn’t look cluttered and hard to scan. 

After sending out your direct mailers with attached QR codes, use analytics tools such as Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics to track interactions with these codes. 

You can utilize this data to understand who is responding best (and least) to your direct mailing campaigns – helping you focus efforts where they are most effective while avoiding inefficient spending on ineffective strategies or content in future campaigns.

Using campaign-specific URL tracking

Incorporating campaign-specific URLs into your direct mail pieces is an easy and cost-effective way to measure response rates and gauge customer engagement levels. With this data, you’ll be able to refine messaging strategies and maximize ROI from every upcoming campaign.

A custom landing page on your website that corresponds with personalized URL in your direct mail piece allows you to track where customers are coming from, what they’re doing once they reach the landing page, and how many people convert after visiting it. You can also use Google Analytics to track customer clicks and build custom reports that show which pieces are driving conversions or signups. This will provide valuable insights into what’s working and what’s not so you can adjust accordingly.

By tracking performance metrics, such as click-through rate (CTR) and conversion rate, you can better understand how your campaigns perform relative to one another. This helps ensure that you’re targeting the right audiences with the most effective messaging and budgeting appropriately for each campaign. Using personalized URL provides valuable feedback about which pieces resonate best with customers so that you can create more effective campaigns in the future. 

Coupon codes

You can track and measure direct mail marketing campaigns by offering a unique coupon code. This allows you to see who took advantage of the offer. Coupon codes are highly beneficial as they include incentives such as discounts or gifts in exchange for redemption.

You can track coupon code data by analyzing how many people opened and redeemed the coupon. Other factors such as customer demographics, location, purchase habits, and more can all be tracked if desired for an even better understanding of your direct mail campaigns.

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Using trackable phone number

Call tracking with unique phone numbers are incredibly useful to measure direct mail campaigns. These unique phone numbers can be used in direct mail campaigns to redirect to your phone number, so you can easily track which calls resulted from the campaign. This way, you can get more detailed data on who’s responded to your campaign, when they called and what their interactions with your business have been. 

It’s essential to make sure you’re using quality phone numbers for call tracking that are easy to remember. Having unique numbers also helps make it easier for customers to save or bookmark them if needed. Additionally, ensuring that your phone number is visible on all aspects of your direct mail marketing campaign is critical from both a visual and practical standpoint. Making sure that customers have access to a phone number they can contact should they need more information or assistance throughout the campaign ensures that no leads slip through the cracks due to lack of visibility. 

When analyzing the success rate of your direct mail campaign, having detailed analytics available through tracking phone numbers makes it much easier for you to understand precisely what is working (or not) in terms of response rates and effectiveness. Breaking down customer activity by geographic area or other variables could help inform future marketing strategies or identify potential areas for improvement. Additionally, having access to these insights into how people interact with your brand could also be incredibly beneficial for customer service purposes. 

How to measure direct mail success rates

Measuring direct mail success rates is crucial to ensure that any campaign is successful. Businesses should consider several key metrics when assessing their direct mail success. 

Delivery rates

The delivery rate is the ratio of pieces delivered versus pieces sent out. To calculate the delivery rate of your direct mail campaign, divides the number of direct mails successfully delivered by the total number of mail pieces sent out for that particular campaign.

Use this formula to calculate direct mail delivery rates.

Direct mail pieces delivered / Direct mail pieces Sent = Delivery Rate.

Response rate

Direct mail response rate is the number of people who respond to your direct mail out of the total amount sent.

Use this formula to calculate direct mail response rates accurately.

Direct mail responses / Direct mail pieces sent = Response Rate

It’s essential to track which campaigns have the highest response rates so you can focus more resources on them in the future. This can help companies gauge how effective their message was and whether certain elements may need adjusting for better results in the future.

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Click to book a demo version

Conversion rate

A key metric to measure direct mail success is conversion rate, which is the percentage of people who responded and took action related to your offer or call-to-action (CTA). For example, if a company sends out 10,000 pieces of direct mail and 1% of recipients respond by signing up for a subscription service, it has a 1% conversion rate.

Number of Orders / No of Responses from direct mail = Conversion Rate

Conversion rate measures how well your message resonated with customers and whether or not they responded accordingly.

Cost per acquisition (CPA)

CPA refers to the cost you have spent to acquire a customer through a direct mail campaign; this includes any associated expenses such as design, printing, mailing, and postage costs.

You can calculate the CPA of direct mail campaign using this formula.

Direct mail campaign cost / Number of Orders = CPA

By tracking CPA, businesses can understand how effectively they use their marketing budget and what changes may be necessary to increase their return on investment.

Return on Investment (ROI)

To determine ROI for a direct mail campaign, divide the total revenue by the total costs associated with the campaign (including production and postage). For example, if you have sent 1000 pieces at a total cost of $2000 and generated $10,000 in sales. As a result, your campaigns revenue ratio would be 5:1 ($10,000/$2,000)

Here is how you can calculate ROI for a direct mail campaign

(Revenue – Campaign Cost) / Campaign Cost = ROI

A good rule of thumb is to aim for a return on investment (ROI) higher than 2:1 or 3:1 when it comes to Direct Mail campaigns to make them economically viable. 

Conclusion

If you take the time to track and measure your direct mail performance, you will be able to see what works and doesn’t work. Try different strategies and tactics to see what gets the best results. And don’t forget to track your direct mail ROI to justify your expenses. With a little effort, you can ensure that your next direct mail campaign is successful.

Shelly Parker

Shelly Parker

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