Isabella Mest

The benefits of first-party data are powerful. First, since you own the data, you can verify that it is accurate and timely. Second, aggregate data about your customers provides incredible insights to help you find and engage new customers.

First-party data is information collected directly from your customers that offers valuable insights into online behaviors, enabling personalized and automatically triggered direct mail campaigns.

This data includes details collected from your website visitors, customers, and social media followers, covering names, physical and email addresses, and other information based on your marketing scope. For example, it may encompass demographic information, online behaviors, CRM data, customer feedback, purchase history, and more.

Why is First-Party Data Important?

As data collected directly from your audience, first-party data allows you to understand and engage with customers effectively. It helps you retarget and nurture leads based on real preferences and behaviors, improving decision-making and enhancing marketing efforts.

Because this data is owned by you, it offers unique insights into each customer’s shopping behaviors and purchase intent. Analyzing this information helps tailor your marketing strategies to meet individual needs and expectations. Direct Mail Depot can partner with you to evaluate this data and optimize your approach. A multi-channel strategy combining digital and direct mail marketing strengthens your message across platforms.

Using First-Party Data for Retargeted Direct Mail

First-party data enables seamless integration between online and direct mail campaigns, known as retargeted direct mail. Rather than reaching a broad, untargeted audience, you can send direct mail based on specific customer actions. For example, a customer’s interaction with a product page can trigger an automated mail piece that reinforces their interest.

Retargeted direct mail combines digital insights with traditional mail, allowing you to send timely, personalized messages that resonate. This approach not only improves response rates but also makes your call-to-action more relevant to customer needs.

Automating direct mail with first-party data can lead to significant cost savings and higher ROI, making it easier to convert prospects into loyal customers. Aggregated data across customer touchpoints strengthens brand connections, reinforces your message, and drives conversions.

Direct Mail Depot is your trusted partner for effective, data-driven direct mail campaigns.

The 2025 USPS Mailing Promotions provide a valuable opportunity to lower your postage costs.

Direct Mail Depot is ready to help you achieve maximum impact with your direct mail strategy while keeping expenses low.

Our team will assist you in tapping into savings of up to 6% on your mailings and guide you on qualifying for extra promotional discounts. Full list of 2025 promotions are here.

Each year, USPS launches promotions designed to inspire marketers to adopt innovative technologies and printing techniques in their direct mail campaigns.

Here is an overview of the 2025 Promotions offered.

Integrated Technology- DISCOUNT: 3%

Integrate technologies that enhance mail’s performance such as Augmented, Mixed or Virtual Reality; NFC; Video in Print; voice assistants and more.

Tactile, Sensory, Interactive- DISCOUNT: 4%

Enhance customer engagement through innovations in paper and stock, substrates, inks, interactive elements, and finishing techniques. (Gloss stock not eligible).

Continuous Contact- DISCOUNT: 3%

Increase customer touchpoints by mailing more frequently to the same addresses. (Content of each mailing must be iterative or complementary, not duplicative).

Reply Mail IMBA- DISCOUNT: 3% or 6%

Encourages Qualified Business Reply Mail (QBRM ) and High volume QBRM customers to adopt IMbA .

First-Class Mail Advertising- DISCOUNT: 3%

Leverage First-Class Mail® to promote your offerings to customers.

These promotions create a win-win: by enhancing your mailings, you drive higher engagement and response rates while also benefiting from postage discounts by meeting a few requirements.

With a trusted partner like Direct Mail Depot, running campaigns that qualify for USPS promotional discounts becomes straightforward—and your direct mail ROI gets a substantial lift.

Reach out to us today at: in**@di*************.com.

Industry-focused marketing insights can help craft more impactful and actionable financial campaigns. By analyzing proprietary data, you can discover how brands are achieving success with direct mail.

Today’s marketers have a wide array of options, from cutting-edge innovations to advanced tracking capabilities, giving businesses numerous ways to capture attention and stand out.

Direct mail, in particular, is a powerful element of omnichannel campaigns. However, with so many tools and strategies available, finding the right approach can be challenging.

To understand how businesses across various industries are leveraging direct mail, the United States Postal Service partnered with Summit Research* to conduct a proprietary study.

According to the study, 82% of financial companies find direct mail to be an effective channel. Among all industries surveyed, financial businesses rated direct mail as equally or more effective than other channels, with only social media ranking slightly higher, by just 1%. Additionally, financial companies reported having the highest level of expertise with direct mail, using it primarily for growth and loyalty-building.

Their preferred method? Customization. The study revealed that 62% of financial companies personalize offers, while 59% personalize greetings or customer names.

At Direct Mail Depot, our Digital Variable Color Printing allows for highly personalized mail pieces in a single mail stream. Using advanced software, this technology automatically selects and prints unique images, graphics, and text for each recipient, based on information from your database. This customization can be tailored to various factors, including demographics, location, income, occupation, purchase history, and household size.

DMD Success Tip: Mail customization can make customers feel valued and understood while building trust—key for customers making important financial decisions.

Key Takeaway:

In a constantly evolving marketing landscape, staying up-to-date can be challenging. Smart marketers rely on data to guide their decisions, ensuring their strategies align with their sector, objectives, and unique needs.

Direct Mail Depot is your trusted partner in achieving success. Reach out to us today at in**@di*************.com.

FOOTNOTE

“Direct Mail Industry Research: Insights Report,” Summit Research for McCann Worldgroup, May 2023.

Every company is part of a broader supply chain that includes third-party providers of products and services. Main suppliers like Direct Mail Depot, referred to as Tier 1, work directly with the company. Other suppliers, DMD included, are categorized as Tier 2. While Tier 1 suppliers are often the focus of supplier diversity efforts, the potential impact grows when Tier 2 suppliers are included.

Tier 1 spend refers to the direct procurement dollars spent by a company with certified diverse suppliers.

Tier 2 spend refers to the procurement dollars spent by a company’s suppliers with certified diverse suppliers. In this case, Tier 2 suppliers are essentially your suppliers’ suppliers.

Working with Tier 2 suppliers enables your company to extend its diversity spend while maintaining relationships with existing suppliers or accessing those with unique capabilities. Tier 2 diversity spend is a critical part of the future of supplier diversity.

There are many benefits to utilizing Direct Mail Depot for your Diversity Spend:

• You can access a wider pool of suppliers with unique perspectives and capabilities. This can lead to improved product quality, and enhanced customer satisfaction.
• This brings diverse perspectives that fuel innovation, sparking creative solutions to help your business stay ahead of the competition.
• When you Invest in diverse businesses, this empowers underrepresented groups, drives economic growth and creates a more inclusive and sustainable economy.
• By aligning with diverse suppliers, this ensures that your business reflects the broad spectrum of your customers and communities, strengthening trust, loyalty, and gaining deeper connections.

As a certified National Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) and a woman-owned, managed, and controlled business, Direct Mail Depot is committed to supporting and fostering the growth of minority enterprises.

 Reach out to DMD to be your partner for Tier 1 or Tier 2 Diversity spend.  

For business owners, effective and affordable marketing is crucial. But with so many options, tight budgets, and little time, figuring out what works can be daunting.

While many are drawn to digital tactics, these methods can be confusing, and what works for one business may not suit another. It’s worth revisiting core marketing strategies, especially direct mail, which can cut through the crowded digital space and address today’s business challenges.

Direct mail offers business owners a simple, cost-effective way to target their audience, provide value, and drive action.

Counter Digital Overload 

In an era where consumers are inundated with emails, a tangible mail piece stands out. Direct mail provides a refreshing break from the digital clutter, giving your business a better chance to be noticed.

Reach New Customers 

Proven and reliable, direct mail is now more relevant than ever. Unlike fleeting digital ads, direct mail often gets more attention and is shared with friends and family, keeping your brand in the spotlight longer.

Adding direct mail to your marketing toolkit can help you attract new customers and strengthen relationships with existing ones. Studies show that direct mail stays in the home for about four weeks and builds trust with consumers. Integrating it into a broader campaign also creates opportunities for follow-up actions, like visiting a website or engaging on social media.

Tip: Consider an Informed Delivery® campaign, which blends physical mail with digital elements to boost conversions. Direct Mail Depot can help you with that.

Why Choose Direct Mail? 

Direct mail is customizable and engaging, without breaking the bank. Plus, Direct Mail Depot (DMD) is here to help you navigate the process—from design and targeting to printing and mailing.

Leverage Digital Innovations 

Today’s direct mail is as trackable as it is effective, thanks to dynamic add-ons.  Click here to read more on this. Advanced features allow you to see the impact of your campaign in real-time.

Targeted and Personal 

Direct mail can be tailored based on location, demographics, and behaviors. With the right data, you can create personalized messages that truly resonate with your audience.

Creative and Impactful 

To make your direct mail stand out, think beyond the basics. Simple elements like scratch-offs, puzzles, or branded items can increase engagement and stay within your budget.

The Bottom Line 

Direct mail remains a powerful tool for businesses, seamlessly integrating with digital efforts to drive results. It’s an appealing, automated solution that works across generations.

For all businesses, direct mail offers an effective, customizable strategy to grow and maintain customer relationships.

Direct Mail Depot is your trusted partner in achieving success. Reach out to us today at in**@di*************.com.

Why Direct Mail Remains Effective

1. Greater Memorability

Direct mail materials offer a tangible experience that digital ads can’t replicate, making them more memorable and enhancing brand recall for recipients.

2. Precise Audience Targeting

Direct mail enables businesses to target specific demographics, interests, or geographic regions, ensuring that their messages reach the most relevant audience segments.

3. Personalized Messaging

Direct mail allows for highly customized communication, where businesses can address recipients by name and tailor content to individual preferences and behaviors through precise targeted distribution strategies.

4. Higher Response Rates

Direct mail consistently outperforms digital marketing channels in terms of response rates, leading to increased customer engagement, lead generation, and conversions.

5. Physical Brand Representation

Printed mail materials provide a physical embodiment of your brand, helping to establish trust, credibility, and emotional connections with recipients.

6. Trackable Results

Direct mail campaigns can be easily monitored and measured using unique identifiers or response mechanisms, allowing businesses to evaluate the success of their marketing efforts and make necessary adjustments.

7. Creative Versatility

Direct mail offers creative freedom, enabling businesses to design visually appealing and innovative mailers that capture attention and stand out in the mailbox.

8. Extended Shelf Life

Unlike digital ads that quickly fade away, direct mail materials have a longer shelf life, remaining visible to recipients for an extended period and increasing the chances of a response over time.

9. Integration with Digital Marketing

Direct mail can work in tandem with digital marketing strategies, offering an integrated approach that enhances brand visibility and engagement across multiple channels, both online and offline.

10. Cost-Efficiency

Contrary to popular belief, direct mail can be a cost-effective marketing option, providing a competitive ROI and value for businesses of all sizes, particularly when combined with targeted and personalized messaging.

By taking advantage of these benefits, businesses can effectively use direct mail marketing to reach and engage their target audience, driving measurable outcomes and achieving their marketing goals.

Direct Mail Depot is your trusted partner for all your direct mail needs. Contact us today at in**@di*************.com to discover how we can assist you.

As an unpredictable market continues to impact brands around the world, companies must adapt while preparing for the future. See how direct mail marketing can create better stability and higher ROI.

Today’s businesses are facing an unpredictable market. With a shifting economy, tighter regulations and changing customer preferences all affecting the industry in recent years, businesses are looking for ways to adapt. Focusing more on direct mail marketing can help maintain a consistent return on investment (ROI) during times of uncertainty.

In fact, direct mail campaigns incorporating standard letter-sized mail had a 112% average ROI when sent out to prospects—higher than SMS texts (at 102%), email (at 93%) and paid search (at 88%).

There’s no way to fully avoid the inherent uncertainty of the modern-day marketing and supply chain spheres. But with careful planning and innovative use of direct mail, companies can mitigate risks, ease costs, and create successful campaigns that not only maintain but improve ROI.

5 Tips for Long-Term Success with Direct Mail Marketing

The cost of digital marketing is on the rise, with businesses facing higher prices and increased pressure to convert.

But direct mail can still provide a reliable return on investment while offering customers a uniquely tangible experience—a welcome novelty in the age of digital. Following a few best practices can help ensure success:

1. Plan Ahead

Rising costs, inventory scarcity and various supply chain issues can all contribute to delays in campaign launches. To help ensure your direct mail marketing efforts are released on schedule, it’s important to plan ahead. Let vendors know well in advance what products you require, and keep a detailed schedule of upcoming campaigns and major milestones. If you’re looking to save on paper costs, explore options for lighter-weight materials that still meet USPS requirements

DMD Tip: Maintain close communication with colleagues and partners to keep things moving, and be sure to build delays into your schedule to create more realistic timelines.

2. Reduce Waste

Increasing efficiencies can help ensure your campaigns reach the right people and your mailpieces don’t go to waste. Even simple steps like regularly updating your mailing lists can go a long way. With approximately one in six families moving every year, ensuring address accuracy is imperative. You can double-check ZIP Code™ information using the USPS^® ZIP Code lookup tool.

DMD Tip: No matter how much you prepare, some undeliverable mail is inevitable. The free USPS BlueEarth^® Secure Destruction service can intercept any of your brand’s undeliverable.

First-Class^® mailpieces, then securely destroy them and recycle them—saving you both time and money.

3. Automate Campaigns

Automated marketing can streamline campaigns, helping you connect with the customers most likely to convert while keeping your marketing costs down. Retargeted direct mail, for example, allows you to send out mail automatically after a customer takes a specific action on one of your digital channels. Many brands use this to follow up with customers who left items in their online shopping carts, helping to move them closer toward a purchase.

DMD Tip: Make it easy for customers to act on your mail pieces using omnichannel innovations. If you’re sending postcards reminding customers of the items in their abandoned online carts, for instance, a smartphone-scannable QR Code can lead them right back to those specific products.

4. Dig Into the Data

Take advantage of the data at your disposal to create highly targeted, cost-efficient marketing. By analyzing customer data, you can better determine which demographics are responding to your campaigns, then use this information to shape future marketing, make the most of your budget and increase the chances of customers making a purchase.

DMD Tip: Gather data from all channels—social media, websites, emails, direct mail, reviews, and more. How do customers discuss your brand on social? What questions come up most often? Which promotions have been successful? All of this information can help you create mail that grabs customers’ attention and spurs engagement.

5. Remain Flexible

During times of disruption, flexibility is key. Ordering inventory and campaign materials weeks ahead of time and mapping out key campaigns in advance can help avoid major issues. But you may still need to be ready with other options if things don’t go according to plan. Always be prepared to work with your carriers and vendors to find an alternative that makes sense for your needs.

DMD Tip: When adapting campaigns to a shifting environment, always adjust according to customer needs. Remaining rigid in the type of campaign or product you’re offering can hold you back, but defining your brand based on customer needs allows you to adapt quickly, remain relevant and maintain loyalty—all while improving ROI.

Key Takeaway

With the supply chain in a constant state of flux and marketing costs on the rise, businesses are making changes—big and small—to create more efficient, streamlined campaigns.

Even amid uncertainty and disruption, direct mail remains a reliable, cost-effective marketing medium—allowing marketers to create integrated, easily trackable omnichannel campaigns that encourage customers to act. Taking a few simple steps to prepare for the future, from automating marketing to reducing waste, can help protect your bottom line—for today, tomorrow and beyond.

Direct Mail Depot is your trusted partner in achieving success. Reach out to us today at in**@di*************.com.

Footnotes

[1]According to the Association of National Advertisers’ “Response Rate Report 2021: Performance and Cost Metrics.”

[2]Brad Rosenfeld, “How Marketers Are Fighting Rising Ad Costs,” Forbes, Nov. 14, 2022.

[3]“Checking the Accuracy of Your Address List,” Postal Explorer, USPS.

[4]QR Code is a registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED.

Reprinted with permission of USPSDelivers.com, an expert resource for future-thinking shippers and marketers.

With tighter marketing budgets, the ability to identify a quantifiable return is more important than ever. See effective ways to track and measure the performance of a direct mail campaign.

For today’s marketers, analytics is the name of the game. The shift to digital has provided a wealth of trackable insights, with many campaign decisions relying on performance data to prove each channel’s worth. Unsure of how to measure its ROI, marketers often leave direct mail off the table.

But is that leaving a valuable opportunity behind?

Seasoned marketers know the unique role direct mail can play in the  customer journey — it has long had the power to precisely target and engage consumers. In discussions with key decision-makers at several retail, B2B and agency organizations, however, we hear that many struggle to support mail’s place in their modern-day campaigns.

Direct mail attribution is possible. The key is tying direct mail into a larger digital campaign using the right technical innovations. Read on to see how advertisers are measuring the ability of direct mail to amplify their message and drive action.

How to Track Direct Mail ROI

See how various methods of attribution can help direct mail work with digital to provide measurable results.

Retargeted Direct Mail

Retargeted direct mail is a valuable component of an omnichannel campaign. In synch with your digital channels, this tactic automates much of the direct mail journey, including sending direct mail to your online visitors after they’ve reached specific triggers.

This allows for highly personalized messaging, as well as the gathering of additional data and insights into their behaviors. For example, if a customer visits your website but doesn’t purchase, you can send out an incentive—tying their IP address to a home address—and track whether it converts.

Similarly, you can automatically retarget those who abandon carts. This happens via email all the time, but retargeting emails can get lost in the mix when consumers receive nearly 90 email solicitations a day, compared to just 2.5 pieces of mail.^[5]

QR Codes

More popular than ever, the small square barcode known as a QR Code®

is the perfect merge of offline and on. With a unique scannable code added directly to a mail piece, your audience can easily take the next step toward a sale, whether that’s visiting your site, finding your store, redeeming a coupon or other actions. And you’ll know exactly what and when they do it.

What can customers do with a QR Code?

• Go directly to an order page to purchase instantly
• Watch a video to learn more about your product
• Download an exclusive coupon
• Pinpoint your location on their map application
• Add an event directly to their calendar
• Easily contact your sales team or customer service
• QR Codes are great for an immediate action, and they encourage it by being so simple. Consumers don’t have to go to a computer and enter a URL. They’re engaged right on their phone, which means you are able to gather a wealth of data that can be used to nurture the relationship—and to plan future promotions.

Match-Backs

Match-back reporting is the process of matching untracked sales with your mailing list. By matching conversions during a promotion with the customers on your list, you’ll be able to attribute at least some level of credit to direct mail for the sale.

It’s important to utilize a match-back to determine campaign performance more fully. Not all users will take advantage of a QR Code or other specific URL, but they will be driven to act, and therefore direct mail merits attribution for the sale. Matching your list with a sale also gives you information about the list, offer and creative, which enables you to optimize going forward.

Two things to note: A match-back process is not instant, so you will have to be patient with results. Mail’s lifespan in a home is longer than an email’s, for example—it may sit or be shared with others in the household before being used—so a period of match-back analysis could be from 30 to 90 days.

Second, you may want to consider a holdout strategy to further validate your match-back findings. This involves intentionally withholding your mailing from a determined group to serve as a control to compare with the sales results from the mailed group. While not totally foolproof in a multichannel campaign, this can help attribute lift to direct mail.

Promo Codes and Coupons

Consumers expect and look for special offers with direct mail, with 77% saying a discount is the most effective element of a marketing mail piece.

Coupons can introduce new customers to your business and encourage existing customers to come back to your store. Used strategically, coupons can even help drive sales of a profitable item or service.

Coupons can also help you track your campaign’s performance, particularly when your mail piece contains a unique offer code. Any time the promo code is used for a sale, whether online, over the phone or in person, it will be attributed to your direct mail. In some cases, sending out a promo code will also help you build your online database by requiring an email address in order for it to be used.

Vanity URLs

Similar to how QR Codes function, a vanity URL in your direct mail makes it easier to drive users online to complete a specific action. Meant to be short and memorable, these unique web addresses not only help the shift to your digital channel happen quickly, they also track the encounter to measure specific tactics.

Let’s say you are running TV, out-of-home and direct mail ads. If each promotion features a different URL, you’ll be able to see how each converted, just as you would with online ads. For the best memorability and metrics, give each tactic a clever domain name that works with your campaign theme and drives to a landing page.

Vanity URL Do’s

• Short
• Memorable
• Relevant
• For Example: GimmeFreeHotdogs.com

Vanity URL Don’ts

• Complicated abbreviations
• Long names with backslashes
• No specific call to action (for awareness campaigns, stick to your domain name)
• You can also go further to create personalized URLs (PURLs), which are unique to each customer and lead to custom landing page, a powerful way to bridge the gap to digital.

Post-Purchase Surveys

The value of sending your customers a post-purchase survey is twofold: First, you can ask how they came to your business, and therefore attribute the sale to that tactic. Second, following up can help maintain customer satisfaction.

41% of sales are generated by repeat purchases from satisfied customers.

A post-purchase survey can be as simple as a question on the checkout confirmation page, or it can be sent out later as a check-in to see how they feel about your product and experience. Ideally you can pinpoint how they heard about you and gain insights that can be used to nurture the relationship going forward.

Business Reply Cards

The familiar prepaid business reply card is a popular method for gathering responses to direct mail. These postcards are attached to or included in your mailer and are easy for prospects to fill out and send back.

With a few simple questions, they enable you to gather valuable information about your audience that you might not receive with other response methods. You might even offer an incentive for returning the card, which can boost replies. Just remember, there are format guidelines, and you will need a BRM permit to receive Business Reply Mail.

Key Takeaway

Direct mail is a proven performer. However, with an array of internal teams and media tactics vying for a piece of the budget, it’s no wonder the aspect of a clear and real-time ROI often wins.

Today’s smarter direct mail can help justify the spend. With a comprehensive attribution model, merging direct mail with digital, you can not only engage with consumers across numerous channels, but can also have the power to measure the impact more definitively.

Direct Mail Depot is your trusted partner for all your direct mail needs. Contact us today at in**@di*************.com to discover how we can assist you.

Footnotes

[1]USPS, Direct Mail Decision Making Report, Jan. 6, 2022.

[2]Ibid.

[3]Ibid.

[4]Ibid.

[5]Michael Peach, “Mastering Direct Mail Attribution,” Lob, March 23, 2020.

[6]QR Code is a registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED.

[7]USPSDelivers.com Research — Full Report, Qualitative and Quantitative Results, Summit Research, February 2021.

[8]Ash Maynor, “Why merchants should have a post-purchase survey,” MESA, March 15, 2022.

Reprinted with permission of USPSDelivers.com, an expert resource for future-thinking shippers and marketers.