One of the most important aspects of any marketing plan is to make sure there is way to track the results of your efforts. Although it might feel like your job is done after you’ve planned and finally gotten your marketing campaign out there, there’s still a lot to do to make sure your campaign is successful. You will want to know if your effort and resources have been effective. You’ll want to know where you get the highest success rates, and who your most loyal customers are. Here are a few tips to planning and implementing a successful method of tracking direct mail results:
Diversify Your Mail
After letters are sent, many companies don’t track the results of the letters they send. We suggest sending more than one type of mail—maybe send a letter, a postcard, and a flyer. However, you can’t simply send these letters and leave it at that. If you don’t track the results of your campaign, you won’t know which type of mail was the most helpful to your cause. In order to determine which mode of information generated the most replies to your company, it’s a good idea to craft two to four different letters or postcards, and then send them to different parts of your audience. Though there will always be unexpected variables that you won’t be able to control—or even know about—dividing the different kinds of letters by neighborhood or other geography is a good, simple way to determine which letters are proving more affective. You will be able to pick up on small details that you might not have known were really successful (or maybe they were a flop). Use these findings when designing your future direct mail campaigns.
Diversify Response Avenues
Another way is to have people respond in different ways to your mail. Make it possible for email responses, QR codes, coupons, “Likes” on Facebook, etc. You can also plan to have individual coupon codes printed onto each piece of mail. You’ll be able to track which codes elicited responses.
Ask Questions
When you talk to customers, ask them how they heard about you. Their answers will give you some insight into which marketing plans are working best for your company.
Experiment
Once you’ve determined which correspondence is more effective, create new letters to be sent out with your ‘winner’ for more tests. Although it’s tempting to stick with the first successful letter you have, you can only keep getting better results if you continue to test different templates. You’ll be on your way to a very successful mail campaign!