The best way to measure your organization’s direct mail success is to have a clearly defined end goal. Are you trying to increase brand awareness or drive website traffic? Or maybe your goal is reaching new audiences. Whatever your marketing goal is, measurable metrics will help you determine the success of your campaign.
One of the most commonly used tools is the response rate, which targets who took the next step in the journey.
Here are 5 ways you can track your response rate.
PURLs
Personalized URLs (PURLs) are web addresses created for individual prospects or members. The customized links allow you to know who is responding to your direct mail, and it will enable you to track their experience on your website.
Tracking prospect interaction will offer you more insight into what is and is not engaging material. You also gain more insight into their interests.
You can create a PURL for every recipient on your mailing list. You will drive them to respond digitally through a dynamic web experience, which allows you to track your direct mails return on investment (ROI). PURLs help you collect more information about your prospects and members, allowing you to fine-tune your marketing approach each time.
Customized Landing Pages
Customized landing pages can coordinate with your direct mail strategy and present additional information to your prospects. Adding a data collection form to access exclusive offers or further details allows you to collect more data about your audience while also helping you track your response rates.
QR Codes
Adding a QR code to your mailers lets you drive smartphone and tablet users to a mobile-friendly web page, import information to a list of contacts, or dial a phone number automatically.
QR codes increase your direct mail response rates no matter what the code does. Using QR codes is an excellent way to track responses and collect analytics. You can direct your target to a PURL without needing them to type in the URL manually. QR codes work remarkably well when combined with limited-time promotional offers.
Coupons and Promotional Codes
You can include coupons and promotional codes on your direct mail piece to track performance. Members could walk into your building with coupons-in-hand or interact through your website using the promotional codes. Make sure to use exclusive coupons and codes for each direct mail campaign. Otherwise, you won’t know how to attribute each interaction.
Phone Calls
Your organization needs to pay attention to phone calls. Not everyone will reach out to you from a computer when following up on a mail piece. Some members still like to make a call and ask for more information that way. You can use trackable phone numbers, which allows you to know how many phone calls initiated from a direct mail campaign.
You can revolutionize your inbound marketing efforts with customized, campaign-specific phone numbers that immediately track results. Use a different 800 number for every offer you create. It gives your audience an easy way to respond to you and provides you with what mail piece they are responding to as well. Phone numbers are very affordable, so this is a very cost-effective way to track.
Learning from the Results
You may be amazed by what you discover once you start to get results. Sometimes the most successful offers are not the ones we thought they would be. Add the response information to your data file so that you know what works on who. Keep a record of what they purchase from you. Both of these data sets will help your organization provide more personalized offers in the future.
Data Management with Valtim
Each of these methods provides you with a reliable way of tracking your response rate. These options put you on the path to further understanding and to evaluate your direct mail marketing strategy’s effectiveness.
Working with a seasoned direct mail marketing team like Valtim is the first step towards increasing your response rate and your overall direct mail ROI. Valtim can assist your organization in finding the best method for your personal campaign goals. We offer a variety of data management solutions that can be a game-changer for your marketing strategy.
