Automated Direct Mail: What to Test in a Direct Mail Campaign

Sep 28

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How do you determine the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns? Smart marketers know that the road to a winning strategy is paved with the systematic testing of different ideas - what works and what does not.

How to Analyze the Effectiveness of Direct Mail

This is also true for direct mail campaigns. Incorporating ongoing testing in your company’s direct marketing efforts allows you to gain valuable insights into your target audience and what prompts them to convert.

Know Where to Start

A good way to kick off your direct mail testing is to set the goal you want to reach and identify which aspects of your campaign to test first. Equally important during the first steps of planning, is to segment your audience list to create test groups.

To this end analyzing the customer data you already have is necessary to make an informed assessment of your target groups’ direct mail preferences. Going through this exercise is much more efficient if your customer data is stored in one platform. Sepire’s direct mail solution integrates with your CRM, putting all the data you require at your fingertips.

Understand What You’re Testing

Once you have formed an assessment of your target audience’s interests, you have to decide which variations to apply in your direct mail campaign.

The main variables to test in direct mail are:

List (audience)
Offer
Creative (personalization, imagery, packaging, and style)
Digital integration

Decide Which Testing Strategy You Want to Use

This is where you decide how you will conduct your direct mail testing. The two primary methods for testing are A/B Split testing and multivariate testing.

1. A/B Split Testing

This is the most common method of testing direct mail involves testing two identical mail packages with the exception of one element for which an A and B version is created. The one group will receive the direct mail with the adjusted variable while the other will receive the unchanged version. Through our direct mail automation solution, you can create a campaign with two versions.

One of the advantages of this automated solution is that the data enables you to make a quick and clear comparison of how the respective variants are performing. Including tracking methods like promotion codes, QR codes or campaign-specific URLs further allows you to track the success of your direct mail campaigns and whether the adjusted element resulted in a higher audience engagement.

If you want to test numerous elements, A/B split testing can be an effective—if not time-intensive—process.

2. Multivariate Testing

Multivariate direct mail testing involves testing multiple variables of the campaign at a time (for instance the offer as well as the design) to see which has the best outcome. Creating multiple variants will usually be a cumbersome process, but Sepire's automated solution includes an HTML or template builder that allows you to effortlessly adjust designs.

Multivariate testing speeds up the testing process and is more informative as it evaluates several components of the mail piece at the same time. It is however a more costly exercise, and tests are often done in smaller batches which may reduce the benefit.

The Data You Need to Improve Your Direct Mail

Testing is important. But your tests need to be run on the best possible information. And in direct mail, you want your materials on the best material using the best quality if you hope to succeed. By combining our expertise in direct mail with our integrated CompliChain solution, you get all the data you need from campaign initiation to debrief.

One thing remains certain and that is that regular testing is necessary to refine your direct mail campaigns. As specialists in our space, we know how to help you make the most out of your direct mail campaigns. To find out how we can help you streamline your testing process, connect with the team here.

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