Hours of planning, preparation, and execution go into launching a direct mail campaign. After everything is out the door, how do you determine if it’s working? Do you know who is responding to your marketing? By analyzing response data, you can identify who completed transactions, gain valuable insights on your consumers, and make data-driven decisions to improve your results.
Metrics to Watch
When you are evaluating the effectiveness of your direct mail campaign, there are key performance indicators (KPIs) you can watch to see how your recipients are interacting with your campaign such as:
- Website Visits
- QR Code Scans
- URL/PURL clicks
- Code Redemptions
While these KPIs will help you see how people interact with your brand, they won’t be able to tell you how many people are actually responding and who those people are. Not everyone will scan the QR Code, enter the special URL, or redeem your coupon. They may visit your physical store, search for your website, or purchase an entirely different product. In order to truly see who is responding, you need to run a response analysis.
What Is a Response Analysis?
A response analysis is data analysis that matches up your direct mail list to your transaction list. Data scientists will take your data through multiple layers of matching based on names, postal address, and email address to identify people you targeted. Our AMP Ultra-Match actually has an 18-step matching algorithm, so we can identify as many responders as possible, and each step has over a 92% confidence score.
When you run a response analysis, you are able to capture the people you sent a mail piece who didn’t respond as you anticipated. They may have purchased in store instead of online, bought an entirely different product, or not used the discount code. However, they still received the mailer and took action. Many times, our clients discover their marketing campaign performed far better than they thought because we were able to identify more prospects who completed transactions.
Data to Gather
In order to run a response analysis, you need to target a known audience. You might target this list of people through direct mail, email, social media, connected TV, or streaming radio, but you have a list of names with postal addresses that you sent advertisements to. If you use hidden audiences where you select demographics and geography, but do not know who those individuals are, you will not be able to run a campaign analysis.
Next, you need to collect information at the transaction point. Capturing names and postal addresses is essential, but the more data you are able to gather, the more information you can glean from the analysis. Some data points you might want to collect are:
- First and Last Name
- Postal Address
- Phone
- Transaction Amount
- Product Purchased
Time Frame
Timing is crucial in running a campaign analysis. Direct mail has a much longer shelf life than social media ads, display ads, or emails. People may hold onto your mail piece for weeks before they decide to take action. Before you run a campaign analysis, think about how long you want to wait from the in-home date before you want to pull transaction data. For a direct mail piece, you might pull data anywhere from 4-12 weeks after the in-home date.
If you pull data too soon, you may miss many of your responders, and if you wait too long, you may miss out on valuable insights to help prepare for the next campaign. When trying to figure out what works best for your business, think about the promotion itself. When did it expire? Then tack on 1-2 weeks to capture any late purchases.
What kind of items or services are you selling? Consumers tend to think about larger, more expensive purchases for longer periods of time. What time of year did you send the campaign? Do you need to factor in any holidays or special events that might impact your sales and when people complete a transaction?
Using Results to Optimize
When you know who is responding to your marketing campaign, you know how to tailor your messaging, offers, and graphics for them. You can also use this information to help you find prospects who look just like your current customers.
Response analysis can provide valuable insights into your direct mail campaigns. By analyzing this data, you can identify trends, patterns, and areas for optimization, so you can create more effective campaigns.
Next Steps
If you want to know who is responding to your marketing, let’s connect. Our team would love the chance to help you optimize your marketing.