Targeted Lists Are Key to Dimensional Mail Success

Prospecting with dimensional mail is both attractive because of high response rates and risky because of high costs. So what's the key ingredient of success? Mailing lists that are appropriately and tightly targeted, answers a recent Entrepreneur magazine article on dimensional mail. Here are the facts: The Direct Marketing Association's 2015 "Response Rate Report" shows dimensional prospecting mail earns a median 2.8% response that betters the 1% of a letter envelope and postcard, or even the 2% of an oversized envelope. Dimensional mail works because it's often lumpy, bumpy, unusually shaped and/or weightier, which grabs attention in the mailbox and sparks a curiosity about internal rewards that leads to opens. However, while dimensional mail may earn top response rates, it also has the highest cost per thousand, at an average $1,205 compared with a standard letter envelope package's $583, per the DMA report. This raises the stakes but does not disqualify dimensional mail as an acquisition tool. Overall, dimensional mail for prospecting still comes in at the lowest $43 cost per response, compared with the highest cost per response turned in by catalogs ($112) and oversized mail ($105), per DMA stats. Success in this response-cost balancing act depends on another ingredient: list targeting. In his recent Entrepreneur article, Craig Simpson, owner of Simpson Direct, Inc., explains why dimensional mail works best with "a small, highly targeted group of prospects." It is also "invaluable" with "hard-to-reach niches," especially business-to-business  promotions that need to get past office "gatekeepers," he notes. Read the rest of our post at http://www.acculistusa.com/why-targeted-lists-are-key-to-dimensional-mail-success/

USPS 2016 Programs Incentivize Innovative Mailers

The U.S. Postal Service is luring direct mailers toward creative and technology innovations that promise to punch up response this year. It's a siren song hard to resist in an election year of intensified mailbox competition. Target Marketing magazine recently outlined five key USPS promotional programs incentivizing 2016 mailers, especially those embracing print technology. For example, from March 1 to Aug. 31, an "Emerging and Advanced Technology/Video in Print Promotion" gives a 2% postage discount on First Class, Standard and Nonprofit letters, cards or flats using interactive technology: standard NFC, Video in print (ViP), beacon technology or "enhanced" augmented reality. During the same period, the "Tactile, Sensory and Interactive Mail Piece Engagement Promotion" offers a 2% postage discount on Standard and Nonprofit letters or flats offering special visual, sound, scent, or texture/tactile effects, as well as interactive dimensional features such as pop-ups. Another 2% postage discount can be earned for First Class Mail with the "Personalized Color Transpromo Promotion," starting July 1, just by adding a color sales message to a statement or invoice. Also starting in July, the "Mobile Shopping Promotion" gives a 2% postage discount to Standard and Nonprofit letters or flats using a mobile bar code or other print-to-mobile technology. Plus, the spring "Earned Value Promotion" rewards each piece of returned First Class Business Reply and First Class Courtesy Reply mail with a $0.02-$0.03 credit. For links to details, go to http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/post/5-usps-direct-mail-promotion-programs-2016/

How Mailings Won 650% ROI for Data Backup Firm

Even high-tech firms can sometimes get bigger results from traditional direct mail than their usual digital efforts. Intronis, a 12-year-old cloud-based data protection service, is a case in point, as recently reported by Advertising Age. Intronis, which serves 50,000 small-business customers and sells through a network of 2,000 managed IT service providers, wanted to reach larger IT service providers. But e-mail and calling weren't getting the desired attention. So the company launched a two-part mailing campaign: Based on the demographics of the IT audience, the first piece hooked attention by including a "retro cool" Atari game player with the promise that if users spent 30 minutes on the phone with an Intronis salesperson, they would get a free gaming platform, with a choice of XBox, Wii or Sony Playstation. The company started small, sending out 50 Ataris and won meetings with 25 recipients, a 50% conversion. After 20 more waves, allowing for testing of messaging, packaging, timing and mail volume, the campaign had garnered an average 35% conversion rate (meetings) and an ROI of 650%, based on the value of deals generated divided by all campaign costs. Among the lessons learned per Ad Age reporting: With high-end premiums, send out relatively small numbers in each mail wave to reduce fulfillment costs. Put a lot of thought into the mail creative in terms of messaging and packaging; for example, the mailing worked best with a box that opened in one direction and with the brand message and cover letter on top and visible before the enclosed Atari. For the complete article, see http://adage.com/article/btob/data-backup-company-650-roi-atari-campaign/298195/

Is USPS Planning New Mail Technology Discounts?

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) may be considering more discounts for direct mailers who use emerging mail technologies -- at least that's the implication of a "Mail Innovations" report just released by the USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG). The report details and encourages use of 10 types of innovations, hinting that these may also come up for promotional discounting. Three tools listed under "Connected Mail," meaning mail that incorporates digital via Internet-enabled devices, already get discounts from the USPS: QR Codes, Augmented Reality (AR) and Near-Field Communication (NFC). The OIG report adds Webkeys, which can be plugged into USBs to launch web pages, to the Connected Mail category for potential promotion. The OIG report also discusses three technologies in an "Electronic Mail" category, meaning direct mail with an embedded electronic component: video in print, which creates a screen on paper that can play up to five videos; mobile in print with call or text buttons connecting directly to the marketer; and conductive ink mail that can link to an electricity source such as a battery or processing chip to do things like light a bulb or create a noise. Finally, the OIG report looks at "Dimensional Mail" innovations, such as "interesting links" that allow consumers to interact with mail by making colors appear or disappear; customized MarketMail that uses shape, size and texture, often without an envelope; and 3D mail that folds or pops into a message, similar to a pop-up book. For more on the new USPS OIG report and emerging mail technologies, see the Target Marketing magazine post at http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/usps-new-direct-mail-discounts-innovators/1