The mailing list is a crucial component for every direct mail marketing project. You don’t want to send your creatively designed mailers to the wrong audience. If you do send your mailers to the wrong people, you end up wasting time and money. Potential donors may also see your organization as disorganized.
Segmentation is a unique way for organizations to group their audiences to find the right people for their mailers. Without segmentation, you may send mailers to people who see your message as irrelevant. Communicating your message to the right audience is an essential step in any direct mail campaign. You want to find like-minded people who will see your message as relevant and who will strive to learn more about your organization.
Let’s look at how you can find the right audience to mail your content to for your next marketing campaign.
Choosing Your Audience
A good direct mail campaign is built for a specific audience. As such, you may want to pick your audience prior to determining what materials or message you design for the campaign. When you pick your audience, you could be choosing from a number of different categories, such as specific age groups, engagement levels, or by geographic locations. All of your campaign decisions will then revolve around that core audience and hit upon specific details relevant to the group.
Once you have determined who you want to reach, you can choose a segmentation method to create your mailing list. Segmentation will use user data to move every person into a designated group. Then once you categorize people into groups, you will choose which group is the best audience for your project. After making this decision, you will have a functional mailing list.
Segmenting Your Audience
There are various options to pick from when segmenting your ideal audience. You can also mix and match different segmentation options to meet your needs as well. Here are some of the available segmentation options.
Geographic Segmentation
You will use geographic segmentation when you need to reach people in a specific area. For example, you may want to reach all individuals within a 10-mile radius of your organization. You can create your mailing list with this form of segmentation and only send mailers to all people within the chosen range.
Demographic Segmentation
Your organization will use demographic segmentation when you want to target people using specific demographics such as age, gender, or income. You also don’t need to target just one demographic. You can include multiple data points, such as gender and age, to create a more refined message.
Psychographic Segmentation
Psychographic segmentation focuses more on a person’s hobbies and traits. Your non-profit can target your mailer audience based on their values. If their values, hobbies, or qualities align with the mission of your non-profit, they will be a great group to send a direct mail message to for your next campaign.
Sales Stage Segmentation
The sales stage segmentation looks at members who fall in a specific stage of the buying cycle. They may be prospective members, one-time-only members, frequent members, or past members. No matter the buying stage, you can pinpoint which type of member you are looking for and create a mailing list around that buying stage.
Firmographic Segmentation
You can opt to use firmographic segmentation when you need to focus on business-to-business marketing. Firmographic segmentation looks at the following criteria: employee count, revenue, industry, and the number of locations. Choosing this option allows you to spread your message to other businesses or employees that will find your materials valuable and informative.
Creating a mailing list with Valtim
Valtim offers an extensive variety of resources, technology, and experience to help your organization assemble the ideal mailing list. Before you begin the design process of your marketing project, think about who you want to reach with your content. We can help you decide what audience would be best for your marketing efforts. Then, based on your needs, we will help assemble the perfect mailing list. Depending on your goals, we will help construct your mailing list based on geographic, demographic, psychographic, or sales stage segmentation, among many other tools and data points.
Contact Valtim to see how we can help create your next mailing list to ensure your marketing goals are successful.
