Optimize Your Direct Mail Testing to Drive Results

Any marketer knows what the “O” stands for in SEO. We know we need to optimize our website to drive the right traffic to it, but how often do we think about optimization for other marketing tactics?

When is the last time you thought about optimizing your direct mail marketing?

Send operational mail instead of marketing mail? Learn how to optimize your mail with our eBook: Operational Mail Handbook.

Some marketers tell us that their direct mail is already optimized.

They have the right technology, processes, and strategies in place to ensure their direct mail is optimized. But, when we ask a few questions about that optimization we find out there are other avenues for direct mail optimization that haven’t been explored.

And one way we find that out is by asking about testing.

Testing is a critical component to improving your results with direct mail marketing. But, testing can also be difficult, costly, time-consuming, and slow to implement and iterate.

We want to share one core principle from our upcoming eBook (and webinar!), Optimizing Direct Mail for Results, that can help marketers understand what tests to run to truly optimize their direct mail campaigns.

RVA in direct mail marketing

This acronym can help you plan your testing strategy to improve your direct mail processes and drive better results. So, what does it mean?

• Recency: When was your last test? What is the frequency of ongoing testing?
• Velocity: How long does testing take? How many people are involved in the process?
• Accuracy: How are results measured? Where has the most improvement been?

Some other questions we’ll pose to marketers when talking about RVA include: How fresh is your third-party data? What are your data hygiene practices? How automated are your direct mail processes? How much time does it take to ship a direct mail campaign? What’s your attribution window for direct mail? What success from digital marketing tests can you try with direct mail?

By answering these questions, marketers can understand where to focus their testing and optimization efforts, and making sure the right people and tracking is in place. Ongoing testing = ongoing optimization, which can drive a higher ROI.

Direct mail optimization

Intrigued how you can leverage the idea of RVA with your direct mail marketing strategy? Come learn how to optimize your direct mail by attending our Optimizing Direct Mail for Maximum Results webinar.