Royal Mail unlocks secrets of direct mail success

A Royal Mail product story

Edited by the Marketingweek Marketplace editorial team Apr 30, 2008

Companies can increase the success of their direct mail activity by at least 50 per cent by following a five-point plan, an in-depth study of more than 600 mail campaigns has revealed.

The research, carried out by Quadrangle on behalf of Royal Mail, revealed that around 30 per cent of business to consumer (B2C) and business to business (B2B) campaigns pull in response rates of between one and five per cent and a further 30 per cent between five and 20 per cent.

The top performing campaigns - 14 per cent for B2C and 15 per cent for B2B - achieved responses of between 20 and 75 per cent.

And the study unveiled the five most important ingredients to boosting campaign success.

* Quality data: campaigns centred around quality data achieve response rates that are 50 per cent higher than average; successful B2C mailings are particularly likely to have used a customer database while bought-in lists are more effective for B2B campaigns.

* Integration: campaigns that have strong integration with other brand activity deliver response rates of 60 per cent plus above the norm; this reinforces Royal Mail's recent research which revealed integrating direct mail with digital activity can increase consumer spend by 25 per cent.

* Creativity: campaigns with a strong creative angle generate over twice the average level of response; less creative mailings underperform by a third.

* Cutting costs cuts response: direct mail campaigns with an investment of less than 60p per item are the worst performing.

* Logistics make a difference: campaigns sent via Royal Mail's Mailsort 1 - a next-day delivery service - consistently achieve a 70 per cent uplift.

Mike West, Media Proposition Manager at Royal Mail, said: "This in-depth study of more than 600 campaigns demonstrates that direct mail continues to deliver results for businesses but also what the important ingredients are to improving success rates.

"By focusing attention on key elements, such as placing more emphasis on data and creativity marketers can significantly raise response rates, boosting return on investment and hence the bottom line, potentially by thousands of pounds.