Direct mail marketing is one of the oldest and perhaps the most famous methods of advertising that marketers across the world use. As direct mail requires relatively low investment and offers high returns, it interests most businesses.
In the last decades or so, internet-driven marketing has drowned and pushed the direct mail approach to the brink of extinction. However, the recent events have offered this marketing approach a breath of fresh air.
While setting up the direct mailing system is costlier today, it still delivers results. That being said, you should be aware of the cost involved to make smart decisions. In the following section of this article, we will talk about the costs of direct mail marketing and the results it offers.
How to Estimate the Cost of Direct Mail?
The cost of direct mail does not generate from a single point. The whole marketing system involves more than one vendor. So the costing process is quite complex as well. The factors that impact the costing of the direct mailing campaigns are;
- volume
- Design Costs
- Content writing costs
- postage rates
- Format Related Costs
- personalization Rates.
With the new invention of automation technology, implementing direct mail APIs solves the complexity of sending any amount of physical mails, it does not resolve its costing criticalities. However, as most of the above factors are controlled by software now, the costing process has become a little easier.
Source: sundanceusa.com
Cost of Direct Mailing Per 1000
The cost per thousand is one of the most common ways to calculate the expenditure of this approach. The process boils down the price of the whole advertisement campaign to the cost of per 1000 marketing materials.
The easiest way to calculate the cost of direct mail per thousand is to divide the total cost by 1000. While the face value of the direct mail campaign can seem a bit much, if you compare it to the advertisement cost of other media channels, it will seem cheaper.
High ROI Offsets The Cost Per Thousand
It has been proved time and again that direct mailing is one of the most efficient forms of advertisement. While the cost of the direct mail campaign might seem a bit much, it is peanuts compared to the returns. Even though the internet-based marketing campaigns had pushed the direct mailing approach away, in the last couple of years, it is slowly making a comeback.
Check out the following statistics to understand how much impact direct mail marketing automation can create on your marketing campaigns.
The house list response rate of direct mail is about 5.1%. Compared to that, the response rate of the email campaign is 0.6%, similar to the response rate of the paid searches. The social media campaigns bring back a 0.4% response rate while online display advertising brings a pitiful 0.2% response rate.
Source: modmail.com
Is Direct Mail Still Effective in 2021 and does it Provide a ROI?
With today’s technology, many people assume that email, social, and paid marketing are much more effective than direct mail. However, this simply isn’t the case. There is a lot of data-driven evidence that shows direct mail is actually more effective when compared to email marketing:
Emails have an average lifespan of 2 seconds.
75% of people can recall a brand after seeing a direct mail ad compared to just 44% after seeing a digital ad.
Direct mail has an average response rate of 3.5 -5 % while email marketing averages less than 1%.
Here’s why direct mail marketing has been able to consistently provide a better ROI in an increasingly digital-first world.
Physical – the physical element of direct mail allows businesses to provide a complete sensory experience while the customer takes in their message. For example, things like special text paper or unique scents, and few other creative mailers can be used to increase brand recall.
In fact, Canada Post Precision Targeter and USPS EDDM tool allow you to choose from 14 different demographic categories!
Personal – direct mail provides a much more personalization touch to customers compared to digital advertising. There’s just something about getting a letter in the mail that makes it feel more authentic.
From the above information, it is quite clear that direct mail will only add positives to your marketing campaigns. So, why are you worrying about the initial cost of the campaign? Start direct mailing today and over time, reap the maximum benefits.
