Use of Targeted Mailing Lists in Direct Mail Marketing
Today’s scenario is focused on social media platforms and the messy digital world with thousands of posts, emails, and digital advertisements. Direct mail comes to the rescue of those companies that are lost in the crowd. It facilitates personal advertising and helps bring customers closer. There are several advantages of using direct mails like cost-effectiveness, customization, tangibility, and high engagement levels. However, it is more helpful to have a targeted direct mail list to segment your audience and advertise only to the relevant people.
Targeted mailing lists are lists that are specially curated according to certain demographics. These lists are very precise and help companies target the right audience who are most likely to buy their products or services.
Benefits of Targeted Direct Mail Lists
Precision
Targeted direct mail lists are beneficial to businesses in many ways. They are meant to push through the anonymity of the market and precisely target people who would actually and genuinely need your products or services. Instead of advertising to a whole big market where more than half of people don’t need your products, it can give you an edge to find the right users from among them.
Personalization
You can tailor all your messages and direct mails according to the exact needs of your targeted audience. This way, you can reach out to them using highly personalized direct mails for getting their attention. Personalization becomes very easy when you use targeted mailing lists instead of anonymous ones.
Higher relevance leading to increased responses
Targeted direct mail lists can help you reach the relevant audience. This step enables businesses to get increased engagements and responses. Moreover, there is a high possibility that most of these prospects will be converted into customers. Hence, targeted lists assure positive ROI.
Suitable for all types and sizes of businesses
The business of all niches, sizes, and models can use targeted direct mail lists for advertising. It works great for every company as it allows them to reach out to any number of people based on specific demographics. These lists don’t need to be very long. Even small lists that are precise or specifically targeted to the right audience can work great in delivering a good ROI.
Capture new markets
You can discover new markets and capture them easily using targeted marketing. Targeted direct mail lists can help you use geographical locations, hobbies, age, gender, annual income, and other factors to classify markets and capture the relevant ones through proper planning and advertising.
Retain old customers
Retention of old customers is very important for repeat businesses and long-term relationships. With customer mailing lists, you can conduct timely loyalty programs or appreciation mailing. In these campaigns, you send out new offers to old customers to encourage them to keep buying from you, or you can simply send them something as a token of appreciation to strengthen your relations.
Reduced cost
Rather than spending huge marketing budgets on large-scale marketing campaigns, it is always smart to keep it small and specific. It reduces your overall marketing costs and helps you get valuable responses.
Advertise to any group you want
No matter what industry you are into, targeted direct mail lists can help you advertise to any group or sector of the audience. It allows you to be flexible in your marketing efforts and make plans according to your exact requirements.
Types of Targeted Direct Mail Lists Available
There are many types of targeted direct mail lists to suit your needs. In fact, you can get a list based on any factor that you want. Therefore, there are mailing lists targeted to every demographic aspect of the audience. Some popular and most-used targeted direct mail lists are:
Birthday mailing lists
Sending birthday gifts to people can impress and induce them to take action. Birthday mailing lists are curated according to the birthdays of people in a certain locality or section for sending customized direct mails to them. You can also send direct mails to your current customers or prospects on their birthdays – who have shown interest in your company.
Financial mailing lists
For various finance or loan service providers, mailing lists of people looking for financing options can be highly advantageous. These lists contain mailing addresses of people who have expressed interest in applying for loans or mortgages. Typically, they are renters or mortgage holders.
New parent mailing lists
New parents look for various products like children’s wear, diapers, and toys. They also look for healthcare, daycare, and entertainment services. New parent mailing lists are useful to companies that provide these services or manufacture those products, as they are highly relevant to their business.
New homeowner mailing lists
New homeowners or movers who have newly shifted to a place look for nearby hospitals, restaurants, entertainment, home renovation, or other services in their neighborhood. Hence, targeting new movers and homeowners is beneficial for all types of businesses. It is advisable to connect with them before your competitors as these newcomers are sure to be looking around for various products and services.
Automotive mailing lists
Automotive companies can market to people looking for new vehicles and spare parts or vehicle owners who are likely to search for repair and car washing services. Automotive mailing lists have addresses of vehicle owners and people looking to buy a new vehicle – so that automotive companies and service providers can get in touch with them.
Lifestyle mailing lists
Lifestyle mailing lists contain people’s postal addresses based on their psychographic preferences – their hobbies, interests, choices, and way of living. For example, some people are interested in vegan food. Vegetarian restaurants can use the mailing lists containing addresses of vegetarian people to connect with them and promote their brand, inducing them to order food from their restaurant.
Sports enthusiast mailing lists
Gym freaks and sports enthusiasts are interested in gymming, sporting equipment, healthy food, sportswear, and other similar things. A mailing list with sports enthusiasts addresses can help gym owners, fitness trainers, sportswear brands, healthy food trucks, and other companies that deal with similar products and services.
Customer mailing lists
Customer mailing lists contain details about your old and current customers. Using these lists, you can improve customer loyalty and retain them by regularly sending gifts, discount coupons, or ‘thank you’ postcards.
High-income house mailing lists
Households generating a high annual income tend to spend a lot on luxury items. Hence, companies selling high-priced products can target such households using high-income house mailing lists.
Business mailing lists
B2B companies can use business-to-business mailing lists to target other businesses that can be converted into their clients. Business lists can be very beneficial for B2B companies as they sell only to other companies and not to individuals.
EDDM and SmartMail
EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail) is a targeted mailing service offered by the USPS for targeting specific localities or zip codes for marketing purposes. With the help of EDDM, you can target an entire neighborhood or locality under one campaign. The locality is usually decided based on the general demographics of the recipients. EDDM is ideal for companies looking for:
- Advertising without a mailing list
- Saving costs
- Sending non-personalized mails
- Specifically targeting individual households or residential customers
- Conducting saturated marketing
EDDM enables you to reach every single house in a locality. On the one hand, it is good for saturated marketing wherein you don’t want to leave out any house. On the other hand, it does not allow you to send personalized direct mails. However, it is always a good option for companies to advertise their brand at low costs and without having any mailing lists at hand. You can customize your direct mails and make them appealing, in general, to attract responses and increase your ROI. EDDM can help you design a single brochure, postcard, flyer, or letter and send it to every house on a specific route.
Canada Post’s Smartmail marketing is very similar to the USPS’s EDDM. It offers the same services in Canada. Basically, they have three approaches to targeted direct mailing:
- Personalized mail – Unlike EDDM, here you get to personalize all the mails using variable data printing. The intention behind it is to motivate individuals to take action by including compelling offers, attention-seeking messages, and customizations. Only people in Canada can avail of this service for mailing to Canadian addresses only.
- Postal code targeting – This type of targeting allows you to use all the addresses under specific zip codes to build your mailing lists. You can send direct mails to all addresses in a specific area using postal code targeting. Companies can easily reach specific communities by using this service provided by the Canada Post.
- Neighborhood mail – Neighborhood mail narrows down postal code targeting to a specific neighborhood for further segmentation of a place. Canada Post accepts multiple mail formats like flyers, catalogs, and community newspapers. It is mandatory to meet the minimum volume specifications for availing of the Smartmail marketing services.
PostGrid’s Targeted Direct Mailing Solutions
PostGrid offers targeted mailing options all across Canada, the USA, and all the other countries in North America. It is a unified platform for direct mailing, and you can send mails from one country to another easily. Moreover, there are no minimum requirements or specific mailing formats. You can choose any marketing collateral that you want and can use any targeted mail list as per your needs.
PostGrid can help you build these lists from scratch and conduct targeted direct mail campaigns with just a couple of clicks. Using PostGrid, you can get everything done within minutes. You can also save a lot of effort and resources that typically go into planning such marketing campaigns.
Our targeted direct mail list services include:
- Address standardization and validation
- National Change of Address (NCOA)
- Regular data cleansing and updating
- Pre-sorting
- ZIP+4 coding
- Deduplication of addresses
- Ready-to-use mailing lists targeted on any factor (according to the company’s needs)
PostGrid’s automation platform and API can help you in building mailing lists quickly and segmenting them according to various demographics and other factors. It facilitates targeted marketing and helps you save additional costs. You can send to any address situated in any city or country, without having to worry about the validity and accuracy of the addresses. PostGrid takes complete care of address accuracy and validity with its address verification services. It can help you conduct highly personalized and targeted advertising at very little cost and with absolutely no manual effort.
Conclusion
Direct mail is an excellent way to reach out to your audiences directly and connect with them on a personal level. The tangibility and special touch involved in direct mails help drive conversions and sales. Targeted direct mail lists further help direct mails to perform better and in a more streamlined manner. They help in reaching the right people with the right product. Connecting with the relevant audience from a big market can help companies boost their business and get some valuable customers for life.
Targeted direct mailing is exceptional for niche businesses. However, it is ideal for all types, models, and sizes of companies as it helps them to narrow down their marketing efforts and advertise precisely.
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