In recent years, personalized direct mail has become an effective method that companies use to promote their businesses and drive revenue. Personalized communications will be the prime driver of marketing success within the next years because serving the right message to the right customer creates better customer experience and increase brand perception, which leads to a higher ROI, and positively impact the bottom line. And with a good reason.
The following direct mail statistics show that a piece of personalized mail can help your business to grow tremendously.
✔ Personalized mail has proved to drive 5 to 15 percent increases in revenue and 10 to 30 percent increases in marketing-spend efficiency—predominantly due to better product recommendations ensured by personalized marketing.
✔ 78% of executives and marketers (51% of whom are B2B businesses) claim that integrated, branded, and personalized direct mail is a highly effective channel.
✔ Non-personalized direct mail gets 61% of credits compared to 55% social media (Marketing Charts).
The differences between personalized and non-personalized pieces of mail prove that personalization matters.
With so many personalization software options out there now, there’s no reason why you can’t personalize your direct mail. Variable Data Printing services that can control how variable data is placed on each piece are the key component of personalization. The more accurate information you have, the better the personalization will be.
The Top 5 Benefits of a Personalized Direct Mail
1. Increased conversion rates
Let’s start with the most obvious benefit: conversion. The conversion rates increase considerably with the number of personalized messages the recipients are exposed to.
When you tailor your message to your recipients, your message is more relevant to them because it means something. The generic message is the enemy of conversions. It’s worth the extra time and small expense to assure that your piece says the right thing to the right people.
2. Increased customer experience
Brands that know their customers offer them a better user experience. That’s because personalized communications resonate better with their needs and smooth the buyer’s journey. They treat the customer as a person, not just a name on a mailing list.
The companies that use personalization win consumers by making it easy to click purchase or try out a new product. They’ve given customers what they want, what they expect and what they didn’t even know they needed.
3. Increased lead generation
Personalization is a key method of improving lead quality for marketers, with 60% of those surveyed saying this is a key strategy. Because 72% of consumers will now only engage with personalized marketing messages, it makes sense that improving marketing personalization is seen as being so important.
4. Greater ROI from Advertising
The personalization itself brings reduced acquisition costs of up to 50% and an increase in marketing spend efficiency by 10-30%, while revenue upticks nearing 5-15%.
Personalization is leading to positive ROI in 75.5% of businesses in North America and Europe. Retail is seeing the greatest impact with nearly 79% of retailers reporting positive ROI due to their personalization efforts.
How to personalize your direct mail pieces
Obtain as much personal information about your current or prospective customers as possible. Fortunately, there’s a vast sea of data on individual consumers today.
Then analyze the data and leverage it to provide customized, targeted offers, recommendations, and messaging designed to appeal to the individual based on their past behavior, interests, and other data.
Next, create one design layout while deciding what variables the design can have – different background images, or different colors, different offers or different ad copies.
Use clients’ data – gender, age, and birthday and their location to target the prospects located within a certain radius from your business.
Use multiple variable data: from different prices and products to different locations and ad copies. Create a spreadsheet of key data points as they relate to the design, with the placement of variable elements.
Finally, print digitally your unique and personalized mail pieces and send them out. Or find a printer, us for instance, that has also a mailing room facility to print and mail your personalized mail out for you.
How to get started
A simple example of personalized marketing is the targeted direct mail you’ve probably received from your favorite store, which is likely addressed with your name. This personalization strategy allows companies to connect with consumers on a personal level, creating a connection that leads to increased sales. What else you can personalize in a direct mail:
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Offer
You can use personalized incentive recommendations to further deliver one-to-one experiences to your customers. Instead of sending the same offer to an entire list of current or potential customers, you can define the desired incentive range. Use the information you’ve collected from customers based on their purchasing history, and you will make your offers more appealing.
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Images
The images and graphics of your direct mail set the mood and draws the recipient into your ad. Get images that will appeal most to each recipient and the conversion rate will grow as well. You can choose images based on the location of customers to make content familiar to them. Also, you can customize images according to the person’s hobbies and preferences.
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Copy
Personalization of the copy is the most obvious way to use your customers’ names and other information from your database. Tailor the content and messaging to users’ interests and actions and you’ll make it more relevant to them.
Also, don’t forget about differences in perception of the same product between men and women. Adjust your content based on gender to make it appealing to men and women as well.
Are you convinced that the personalization is key to a higher ROI? If you’re considering adding direct mail to your marketing mix, act now. Personalization and relevance will be key to getting results, so supercharge your direct mail with digital data.
Also, to increase even more your ROI, check out our Variable Data Printing Services and enjoy 15% off Your First Order.