Did you know that direct mail recipients purchase 28% more items and spend 28% more than non-direct mail recipients?1This is excellent news for marketers. But with increasing pressure on marketing budgets, you still want to make every direct mail dollar count. Here are three overlooked ways to boost your mailing results and maximize your investment.
1. Keep addresses current with public and private address correction sources.
Most mailers know about the National Change of Address (NCOA) service offered by the U.S. Post Office. However, did you know that only 60% of actual address changes get filed with the USPS? Or that NCOA only catches moves filed within the past 18–48 months? By using private address correction services in conjunction with NCOA, you can find moves not reported to the USPS and can often correct address changes as far back as 15 years.
2. Get addresses right in the first place.
It’s a simple principle, but it is too often overlooked. If you don’t get the address correct on the envelope, the mail won’t be delivered. 1234 Bay Avenue is not the same as 1234 Bay Street. Use professional address correction services to ensure that your mailing addresses are accurate and complete, so your mail pieces arrive as intended.
3. Suppress bad addresses.
Sometimes boosting results isn’t just about targeting people who are most likely to respond. It is also about not targeting those who won’t. Suppression services flag records in your list that are highly unlikely to respond because they have registered for the Direct Marketing Association’s “do not mail” service, have an address in a prison or extremely low-income area, or are deceased. In one analysis of five client mailings, for example, BCC Software saw an average return on investment of 300% by using deceased suppression alone.2
Don’t leave money on the table. Talk to us about standard address correction and the private address correction and suppression services available. You work hard to develop your list. Get the most out of it!
1 “Mail: Convert Browsers into Online Sales” (USPS)
2 “Find the 5 Bottom Line Impacting Items Hiding in Your Data” (BCC Software)