Archive for Direct Mail Lists
Direct Mail Alive and Kicking Thanks to High-Powered Lists
It May Not Be High-tech But It’s Still High Touch
Let’s compare the experience of email versus traditional mail:
Traditional Mail177 billion received per year 53% is considered legit vs 47% Junk* Consumers prefer it more than email as marketing method from brands** 60% of U.S. Postal Service customers said they enjoy checking their mailbox for postal mail** |
14.4 trillion received per year 19% is considered legit vs 81% Spam* 34% of U.S. consumers who prefer email over mail cited “saving on paper” as the main reason, up strongly from 2010** |
We have some thoughts on this
Consumers might have fond memories of going to the mailbox. There’s always the chance of a letter from grandma. When they sort through their mail they actually pick it up and look at it. This may be one reason why direct mail has the potential to provide a much higher response rate:
- the increased attention time
- the tactile nature of it
- the fact that a direct mail piece has much more messaging space on its exterior than the subject line of an email
To fully take advantage of the statistics above, marketers who use traditional direct mail must keep a few things in mind. Direct mail must:
- Be highly relevant
- Be carefully targeted
- Have killer creative
Smarten up your direct mail lists for success
How can you achieve the level of relevance in your creative and granularity in your targeting required to drive high response rates? The foundation is your direct mail lists. In today’s marketplace your direct marketing lists need to have enough demographic, psychographic and behavioral selectors to support razor sharp segmentation and laser focused targeting.
With a rich set of consumer data you can develop highly relative creative that hits the right customers with the right message. Three tips to keep in mind are:
- Make it touchy-feely – fold-outs, scratch ‘n sniff, flashing lights, sound chips all make a direct mail piece more interactive and therefore more engaging
- Keep it simple – avoid information overload. Give the consumer just enough information to move them to the desired action (eg. Go to you web site, go to your store, call, etc)
- Tie it in to the latest gadget trends – drive the reader to your web site, mobile app, Facebook page, etc. Try QR codes, etc.
If your direct mail list doesn’t have a rich enough data set, don’t worry. You can easily add significant depth to your direct mail list with data appending services from a qualified, reputable marketing data solutions provider. Data appending is a quick and easy way to increase your knowledge of the customers and prospects in your existing direct mailing list. It’s the simple process of adding data to your existing direct mail list from an external data resource.
Direct mail lists and services from the best
At V12 Group we offer data appending from our multi-channel consumer database which is one of the largest in the direct marketing industry with over 208 million individuals and 110 million US households. The database is a hybrid file built from compiled and proprietary data sources. It combines postal, email, phone and mobile data, as well as 260+ selection parameters to improve targeting. These selection parameters include demographic, geographic, lifestyle, interests, and behavioral data.
The depth and breadth of our consumer data file enables extremely accurate customer profiling and granular audience segmentation which will help you to improve both your customer experience and your response rates.
Click here to learn more about how V12 Group can help you to get the most out of your direct mail lists.
Sources -
* U.S. Postal Service data from 2009
Powerful Direct Mail Lists Differentiate Ad Agencies
In the ad agency business, standing out has never been more difficult. The metrics with online and digital marketing have made tracking and accountability the number 1 priority of most clients. They want to know they’re getting ROI from every marketing dollar spent. Ad agencies have had to scramble to keep up. At V12 Group, we’re proud to offer you a powerful way to stand out from your competitors – high-powered data.
Customer profiles, not packages
At V12 Group, we’re able to tailor our offerings so ad agencies can bring their clients unique targeting abilities, while simplifying revenue streams and vendor management.
We don’t package our data into pre-conceived groups like “Soccer Moms.” We know that segmentation of audiences is best left to the experts in your media department. We know you understand your clients’ target markets much better than we ever could, so we let you do the grouping using over 260 selects.
This kind of control over your direct mail lists means your creative department can create campaigns which are relevant to each of your client’s segments with creative imagery, messaging and the right call to action.
High-powered data for better direct mail lists
Sophisticated clients typically want to see the results of your campaigns. If they see too many incomplete deliveries, you’ll have an unhappy client. At V12 Group, our average CASS mail ready score is 99.2%. But deliverability is just one of many ways direct mail lists with V12 Group data help ad agencies.
1-to-1 marketing is the most effective form of outreach. Our data composition and sources give ad agencies ways to accurately target sub-sets and zero in on the right target with the right message.
Freshness of data is another critical consideration. Because our data is proprietary, you’re getting the freshest information possible. Most other data vendors actually get their data from other companies, so there’s no way they can keep it up to date. In these changing economic times, people are moving more often. Their economic situation is changing. That’s why we refresh our data every 30 days.
Size of the list is critical for testing and to give you wider sub-sets. V12 Group’s list has:
- 208 million individuals
- 110 million U.S. households
- 81 million opt in email records
- 68 million records with email address and matching postal address
- 112 million records with residential phone numbers (pre Do Not Call Scrubbing)
Contact V12 Group about your direct mail lists
Stand out from your competitors by using high-powered data from V12 Group. Contact us today to see how flexible we are in working with your data needs.
Direct Mail Lists Move Up the Value Chain
Question: When is a direct mail list not a direct mail list?
Answer: When it’s been transformed into a rich direct mail database via the data enhancement process.
Why is that important? Because in today’s post-recession economy the sub 1% or 2% response rates typically associated with a direct mail campaign is not going to cut it. The basic contact and demographic information that make up a traditional direct mail list is not going to give your direct mail campaign the yield you need to stay competitive. In today’s marketplace your direct marketing list needs to have enough demographic, psychographic and behavioral selectors to support razor-sharp segmentation and laser-focused targeting.
Adding punch to your direct mail list
If your direct mail list isn’t up to snuff, fear not. You can easily add significant punch to it with data enhancement services from a qualified, reputable marketing data services company. The first step in the data enhancement process for a direct mail list is data cleansing. Data cleansing for a direct mail lists includes: removing duplicate records (de-duping); moving data entered in the wrong field to the correct field; verifying postal addresses, e-mail addresses and phone numbers and correcting misspelled names, addresses, etc. where possible.
The next step for punching up your direct mail list is data appending. Data appending is a quick and easy way to increase your knowledge of the customers and prospects in your existing direct mailing list. It’s the simple process of adding data to your existing direct mail list from an external data resource.
Choosing a data partner
AT V12 Group we offer data appending from our multi-channel consumer database which is one of the largest in the direct marketing industry with over 208 million individuals and 110 million US households.
Our database is a hybrid file built from compiled and proprietary data sources. It combines postal, email, phone and mobile data, as well as 260+ selection parameters to improve targeting. These selection parameters include demographic, geographic, lifestyle, interests, and behavioral data.
The depth and breadth of our consumer data file enables extremely accurate customer profiling and granular audience segmentation which will help you to improve both your customer experience and your response rates.