The postal service is creating buzz and excitement with their Every Door Direct Mail ads on TV. Cost Effective Targeted Direct Mail versus Every Door Direct Mail
No list! Drop your mail off at the post office! What could be easier?
The reality isn’t quite that simple. The mail piece has to fit their specification of a flat; you calculate the quantities and bundle into packages of 100. If you are mailing to 5 towns, you will have to take your mail to each of the 5 post offices, which could end up taking an entire day!
But the cost savings are there, right? Only 14½ cents per piece for postage! You can go onto the map at the postal website and pick out the carrier routes you think you want to deliver to, and it will go to every single address.
What if every single person isn’t a potential customer?
If you are an Ice Cream Stand, Pizza or take-out Chinese restaurant, by all means, get your menu and coupons out to everyone! What about more specialized businesses? Renters and Condominium owners may not be good targets for your landscaping business. A high-end jewelry store might not want traffic from lower and middle-income households.
Mailing to everyone, when only some are qualified can actually limit your reach. You will be spending money on postage and printing for people whom you are fairly sure will never buy your product. Even worse, they may waste your salespeople’s valuable time.
Here is an example I came across the other day when an agency asked about a mailing for their client who is a pediatrician: The doctor had seen the ads on TV and asked about the Every Door Direct Mail program to help build his business.
We ran the numbers and found there were about 41,000 households in his service area of 5 towns on the south shore of Boston.
Using a targeted mailing list, we discovered that only 15,340 of the 41,000 households have children. To further target the mailing list, we took a look at some additional qualifiers. The practice would rather have younger children and families with an income that would be more comfortable paying medical bills.
5,212 families ended up on the qualified mailing list using the selections: Children Age 0-12 and Household Income of $40K+
Additional qualifiers could include Length of Residence or Number of Children. You could also specify that the piece is addressed to the women (where present).
A better mailing list will pay dividends by helping you go get noticed by the right people!
ListAbility is a mailing list broker with the expertise and quality data to guide you through the process of obtaining a highly targeted mailing, telemarketing, or email list. A better list will pay dividends with the savings you garner in printing and postage – to say nothing of getting noticed by the right people!
Cost Effective Targeted Direct Mail versus Every Door Direct Mail