With the end of the year fast approaching, let’s talk about how you can prepare your direct mail list for a solid start to 2022. Whether you’ve had your list for six months, one year, years, or are just starting, this article will help you take great care of your list so that it can take care of you!

Your mailing list is your most important resource, and it’s essential to take great care of it! A clean and organized mailing list helps you enjoy a more successful campaign. Why? Think of it this way, as you prepare to send out your personal holiday cards, you need to double-check that you have everyone’s address correct. Friends and family may have moved. If you don’t do this step, you may end up having a card sent back as undeliverable. 

Now, if you send a direct mail campaign without double-checking the list, you could be wasting dollars and time. By investing some time and energy regularly, you will enjoy great success from your direct mail campaigns next year.

Let’s walk through our 5-step process for making sure your list is squeaky clean and ready to reach your customers, but first, let’s talk about why. 

How a Clean Direct Mail List Results in Better ROI

Cleaning your list results in a better ROI on your direct mail campaign. Let’s show you how! We share how a direct mail campaign can boost your overall sales here. 

First, this Statistica from 2019, direct mail advertising providers in the country generated total revenue of 9.9 billion U.S. dollars. That’s a BIG number, and you deserve a piece of that pie! The even better news? Direct mail had an average response rate of 9% for house lists and 4.9% for prospect lists in 2018, according to Data & Marketing Association.

How do you boost your overall ROI? Make sure your list is clean and ready! Epsilon shared that 73% of American consumers say they prefer being contacted by brands via direct mail because they can read it whenever they want. But if the consumer doesn’t receive the mail piece because of incorrect information OR they don’t receive a direct mail piece that isn’t personalized, it’s a huge missed opportunity! 

5-Step Direct Mail Management Process

This process is key to having and maintaining a great mailing list, whether you’ve had your list for years or just purchased one.

1. Assign Ownership 

Assigning ownership to your direct mail is crucial to ensuring that it’s well taken care of and up-to-date. This can be assigned to a person on your team or outsourced to a third party with an internal point person. The point is that someone on your team is tasked as the List Keeper so that nothing is missed.

2. Create a List Management Process 

Create a documented process to add, edit, and remove addresses on the mailing list. Now is a great time to ensure that you’re following all communication and privacy standards as well.

3. Organize List by Category 

You may occasionally want to mail your entire database for major announcements or promotions, but what about sending a mailer to one subset of customers? Maybe you want to offer a discount to a customer who hasn’t purchased in 6 months or offer a VIP price to your most valued customers. Organize your list by category as much as possible and what makes sense to your business—customers, past customers, business contacts, local listings, etc. 

Remember, the more you can personalize your direct mail for a specific, targeted list of customers, the better your results will be.

4. Merge and Purge

This one may seem obvious, but it can save you so much time and money! Catch any duplicates or typos to make sure your list is up-to-date by eliminating duplicates. Depending on your database software, this may be a fairly easy process. Ask your direct mail partner or your List Keeper about performing this task.

5. Audit Your List 

It’s important to audit and love on your list regularly to keep up with this process. You can feel confident that your list is clean and ready to receive your mailer communication by investing time. This can include checking previous campaign performance and using tools to check the viability of the list. This task would be for your List Keeper or for your direct mail partner. 

Your Expert Direct Mail Partner 

Now you know the importance of keeping your list neat and tidy. Our expert team at McAdams Graphics is standing by and ready to help you acquire and maintain your direct mail list today. We are your trusted mailing partners and would welcome your questions. Let’s get started by having a meeting to connect.