When considering how to optimize your direct mail campaigns, it's important to consider your budget and understand all the factors that go into the cost of direct mail.

You already know that direct mail is a highly effective way to reach customers and increase sales, but if not done strategically, even a good direct mail campaign can crash and burn. The good news is that there are a number of ways to proactively manage direct mail costs, including using an automated direct mail platform like Lob which can make your team more efficient, reduce complex time-consuming workflows, manage risk, and accelerate ROI and CLTV.

Direct mail costs

One big question when it comes to direct mail marketing is: Are we getting enough bang for our buck?

The resounding answer from marketers is yes! 84% of marketers agree direct mail provides the highest ROI of any channel they use.

The cost of direct mail can vary greatly depending on the size and scope of the campaign. However, there are some general costs that can be expected.

• Printing - the cost of paper, ink, and the printing process itself
• Postage - the cost to send the direct mail piece to its destination
• Production - includes design and production costs, as well as any mailing list acquisition costs (e.g., paying copywriters, designers, or anyone else involved in the process)

It's important to consider all of these costs when selecting a direct mail platform or agency.

How automation impacts direct mail marketing costs

Part of any omnichannel marketing campaign is calculating your investment per channel. As direct mail is integrated into omnichannel marketing campaigns, marketers need the speed, flexibility, and measurability that technology brings to the table. Marketers have moved away from agencies to using in-house teams and technology platforms to create, send, and track modern direct mail campaigns, as well as keep direct mail costs down and predictable.

Using an automated direct mail platform can provide savings, including:

• Productivity gains
• Hard cost savings
• Risk mitigation
• Revenue acceleration

Budgets for direct mail run the gamut from 5-50% with smaller companies spending larger portions of their budgets on direct mail than larger organizations. Traditionally, direct mail has been both time and labor-intensive. That’s all changing with direct mail automation.

Lob has shown that when marketers transform their legacy direct mail workflows, they see:

• 68% measurable return on campaign investment with hyper-personalization, continuous optimization, and multiple form factors
• 85% direct mail cost savings by increasing operational efficiency
• Reduction in time to get campaigns out the door and into mailboxes to days, not months.

The benefit of combining your offline and online channels

Equipping yourself with strong direct mail campaigns is often the perfect complementary strategy to the digital channels you use, including:

• Email marketing
• PPC advertising
• Local SEO
• Social media marketing
• Mobile advertising

When digital and direct mail is combined, marketers see:

• 40% conversion rates
• 68% increased website visits
• 63% increased response rates
• 60% increased ROI
• 53% increased leads

If you're looking to automate your direct mail campaigns, a full-service platform like Lob will help you use fewer internal resources, reach customers in fewer days, and eliminate mailing errors. Lob offers flat rate direct mail pricing with the endless ability to customize, personalize, and schedule or trigger campaigns with no extra costs. With address verification, we make sure all addresses are valid before sending out mail so nothing is ever mailed to a bad address resulting in less wastage.

Another advantage of using a direct mail service is that you can measure the success of your ad campaigns very accurately - leave out the guesswork and get the real data in your hands. Lob has built-in tracking and analytics so you can see right where your mail is in real-time. This data can help you improve your direct mail marketing strategies for future campaigns and create an iterative process for improvement.

Finally, Lob offers a great value for the price. You get all of these features and more for one predictable flat fee. This makes it easy to budget for your direct mail costs and clearly see your ROI.

Save on your direct mail marketing costs with an all-in solution

Direct mail marketing is an affordable way to reach a large audience and produces high ROI. Join your peers who partner with a direct mail company to execute your campaigns.

Plus, our annual survey finds that 82% of respondents are increasing direct mail spend either significantly (more than 10%) or somewhat (up to 10%). They wouldn't be increasing budget for this marketing channel if the price of direct mail wasn't paying off.

Schedule a demo to learn more about direct mail pricing, automation and integration, and how to get a better bang for your direct mail marketing bucks.