Direct mail is one of the best ways to grow brand recognition, boost response rates, and drive conversions. Whether your business uses it to drive website traffic, increase sales, or advertise new locations, direct mail is a great way to create a sensory experience and trigger an emotional response from your audience.

Once your direct mail piece has been mailed, that should be considered the beginning of your campaign, not the end! Tracking your direct mail results is just as important as the mail piece itself. Tracking your response can be used to determine the effectiveness of your direct mail campaign and how it has driven business growth. It enables you to discover valuable information that can be used to build an effective marketing strategy and re-target individuals interested in your business. When backed by real-time results, your marketing decisions become more efficient and more profitable.

Keep reading to learn tracking direct mail for effective responses.

Metrics Your Business Should be Using

There are five tactical level metrics we recommend tracking for every direct mail piece. These metrics are useful for day-to-day campaign management and allow your business to adjust quickly. They help you gain short-term traction and can be used for internal benchmarking.

• Outflows – These consist of any outbound marketing your business is conducting along with the mail piece. Examples include mail piece impressions, ad displays, emails, and calls.
• Website Visits – It is critical to know the time you are tracking direct mail recipients and are visiting your website to discover what specific pages they are visiting on your website.
• Engagements – These are the interactions you receive in response to your outflows and allow you to see how well your direct mail piece is in driving audience participation. Examples include follows, comments, clicks, and calls.
• Qualified Leads – Tracking the number of qualified leads you receive enables you to improve new customer acquisition including initial contact, follow-up, and service touchpoints.
• Conversion Rate – This is the percentage of direct mail recipients that complete a desired goal. This varies depending on what your business has decided to count as a conversion. Examples include purchases, donations, and completing a contact us form.

How to Effectively Measure Metrics

How you measure your direct mail metrics affects the accuracy of your findings and impacts future marketing decisions. Consistently measuring your results the same way allows for easy analysis. Here are our best tips to effectively measure your direct mail metrics.

• Record in the Same Time Interval – This could be daily, weekly, monthly, etc. The key here is consistently recording these metrics in the same interval.
• Make it Visual – Documenting your results is essential for quick recall and analysis. Visuals could include graphs, charts, and tables.
• Make it Visible – Make sure your metrics are seen. Whether they are displayed in a presentation, email, or physical display, it is critical to be aware of these metrics.
• Keep it Relevant – Don’t spend time collecting metrics that don’t matter. This saves you time and allows for more time to focus on the metrics that do matter.
• Look for Trends – This allows your team to identify areas of interest and make quick corrections if necessary. Your number of outflows should directly correlate with your inflows (conversions, website visits, engagements, etc.).

Direct Mail Tracking Solutions

Having a central location to view your direct mail responses is necessary to help your team stay organized and up to date on your results. We recommend using technology that spreads your direct mail message across multiple channels to grow your response rates. Prisma is proud to offer DM360, a marketing-based solution, designed to seamlessly tracking direct mail campaign while enhancing results through the integration of digital platforms. Below are the benefits of DM360 that can help you with tracking direct mail response.

• Dashboard Access – This can be easily accessed by members of your team 24/7.
• Up to 12 Metrics – Metrics shown on the dashboard cover every aspect of the direct mail campaign.
• Control – You can choose what features you implement and the metrics you want to see on the dashboard.
• Real-Time Results – Metrics are updated in real-time, making it easy to see attribution and determine ROI.
• Increased Response Rate – DM360 lifts your traditional direct mail response rate by 23-46%.

Conclusion

Direct mail campaign tracking can provide valuable insight into the effectiveness of your campaign and enables you to refine your mail piece to increase your response on future mailings. Using dashboard reporting for your direct mail metrics makes it easy to perform campaign analysis and make on-the-spot adjustments. Contact us today to learn more about how Prisma’s direct mail marketing solution can boost your response rate and improve your marketing decisions.