How to squeeze more ROI out of a tight direct mail budget

Marketers know the drill: when the economy gets rocky, their budget is often first on the chopping block. At the same time, the dollars that remain fall under heightened scrutiny. How can you optimize your marketing budget to deliver real performance under challenging conditions? And in the long run, whether your budget is down, or corporate expectations are up, what are some strategies you can deploy that will increase your impact as a marketer and generate higher ROI by doing more with less – in any economic climate?

This was a hot topic at the National Etailing and Mailing Organization of America (NEMOA) Spring 2023 conference in Boston. As a sponsor, Deluxe joined leading brands to discuss the ideal media mix and the role of print marketing within an omnichannel strategy. The consensus? Direct mail is a highly effective channel for consumers in this digital world, and as paper and postage costs increase, the importance of making sure every direct mail piece reaches the right person demands a tactical approach, grounded in data-driven decision making. 

Say goodbye to the old spray and pray campaigns

For decades, carrier route direct mail programs have been a marketing staple. Attractive postage rates for both USPS Every Door Direct Mail and Saturation Mail programs have enticed marketers to hit audiences in bulk, maximizing exposure through geographic targeting while reducing initial outward spend. It’s been viewed as a key tool in the marketer’s arsenal, but without smarter data and innovative campaigns, it’s as useful as a light with no light bulb.

The data lakes and modeling available today make it easy to carve out, with precision, the most lucrative segments from within a traditional batch audience pool to drive ROI unlike anything a carrier route only mailing has ever seen. With the right data partner, marketers can watch as consumer insights are applied, whittling an average data dump into a precisely defined and 100% marketing eligible bulk mailing population. 

Focus on the hand raisers

So how do you find that audience sweet spot? Start with the hand raisers.

If someone is online researching firm queen mattresses or looking at 30-year mortgage rates in Boca Raton or investigating life insurance policies for a 45-year-old female, they are seeking solutions to specific and immediate needs. They are a hand raiser that are actively searching for products and services, and their online actions are behavioral triggers. More importantly though, a trigger can also be related to a recent life event, such as getting married or expecting a child. Or it can involve a household shift, including a change in a household’s composition, or a plan to move. There are many behavioral signals that serve as triggers and offer incredible opportunities for companies to engage via direct mail, so marketers can provide consumers with relevant solutions at just the right time—when they’re most likely to engage.  

The importance of "pull" marketing

Once you’ve defined the hand raisers for your business, it’s vital to adopt an automated, always-on trigger campaign. These campaigns pick up (pull) and sends out direct mail to anyone who meets your data and/or behavioral criteria, according to your preferred schedule. This accelerates the sales cycle by presenting the exact content consumers need, at the time they need it most.

Time is of the essence here. Research shows consumer responsiveness declines rapidly following a life event. In fact, Deluxe performance data found that response drops by 33.5% in the 2-3 weeks following the event. To enjoy the full benefit of response, your always-on trigger campaign should reach mailboxes within 1-2 weeks of the triggering activity. 

The best of both worlds 

In an ideal scenario, brands should deploy a data-driven combination of push (batch) and pull (trigger) marketing. By combining strategies, you can achieve excellent, targeted household coverage and volume, while also pinpointing the hand raisers for your products or services. In unison, you can efficiently maintain a direct mail presence with a healthy cadence of mail drops at the right times for optimized engagement.

“It’s about knowing your budget,” explains Elissa Rodd, vice president of Deluxe Data-Driven Marketing. “If you’re operating with a limited budget, trigger marketing is your best bet. We see significant lift using triggers over traditional batch prospect marketing. But if you have a healthy budget, pursuing both batch and triggers is really the optimal solution and provides the biggest bump to your ROI.”

By using quality data wisely, marketers can be more efficient with their scaled back marketing budgets allowing them to generate ROI via households that are both receptive and responsive.