How to Track Measure Direct Mail Success

Identifying metrics for your direct mail campaign is an important part of optimizing the effectiveness of your campaign. Although measuring the success of your direct mail campaign is complex, it's important to collect reliable data. More data means better targeting and campaign optimization. The success of your direct mail campaign can be improved by understanding your audience and what they are looking for.

The response rate is an important metric to track. It measures the number of people who opened your direct mail piece and responded to it. This rate can be calculated by multiplying the number of responses by the number of direct mail pieces. For example, if you sent out 150,000 pieces of direct mail, you can expect to receive 5,000 replies. However, only three to five of those people may actually be interested in purchasing your product. This is called the qualified response rate.

A/B testing is another way to measure the success of direct mail campaigns. Using A/B testing, marketers can compare two different creative messaging, sizes, formats, and postage options. By varying one variable in each group, they can identify which mailer worked best for their business. This process can be helpful in determining which direct mail campaign is most effective.

Another way to measure direct mail success is to look at revenue generated per mailpiece. This is particularly useful for direct mail campaigns that are built around coupon codes, customer sign-ups, or other revenue-generating activities. In these campaigns, the CTA should drive a revenue-related behavior.