Despite all the buzz surrounding electronic marketing mediums such as social media, SMS messaging and outbound email campaigns, many marketing-savvy companies continue to send out direct mail offers.

They have a much longer lead time than electronic marketing mediums and involve very expensive print, mail services and postage costs. So why do savvy companies continue to send out direct mail campaigns? Because they work.

When done right, direct mail campaigns can be a highly effective way to generate business from new and existing customers. When done wrong, direct mail can be a very expensive marketing mistake that most businesses are leery of trying again. So what’s the secret to getting it right?

Here are four secrets to help ensure your next direct mail campaign is a success:

• Start with a good database — If you’re sending out a direct mail campaign to your current customers, then you should have a solid recency (meaning, how recently a customer purchased from the company), frequency and monetary value (RFM) model in place. Use it.

If you’re buying a list, it’s crucial to purchase a high-quality, targeted one from a reputable company, such as Experian, Dun & Bradstreet and Experian. And there are several other reputable companies to choose from.

Be sure the list is well-targeted. For example, if you have an ice cream and candy store with one location, you may want to target households within a five-mile radius of your location that have one or more children living at home. You’ll pay more for a targeting list with specialty criteria, such as number of children in the home, but the investment is well worth it.

Whether you use an in-house list or purchase one, it’s imperative that you ensure the list is cleansed properly before you mail it to maximize the delivery rate. Outsource a good mail shop and have it remove duplicates from your list. The mail shop also can send your list through the National Change of Address (NCOA) process. Doing so will update the addresses of people that have recently moved so your mail piece gets to where you want it to go.

• Make sure your expectations are realistic — Often, businesses send out thousands of mail pieces and are shocked when the phone doesn’t start ringing off the hook. Without knowing any better, they think at least half of the people they mailed to should call or come in. Not true. A respectable response rate when mailing to an in-house database can range from 10-20 percent. For prospect mailings, the response is much lower, ranging from .05-1 percent.

Deliverability of your direct mail campaign (meaning, how many of your direct mail pieces reach the records on your list) should be at least 95 percent for a purchased list. Ask your mail shop for a postal receipt to verify the number of mail pieces that actually went out.

• Craft a strong offer — Crafting a strong offer is crucial to your campaign’s success. Often, this is where companies make big mistakes. Generally, the most common mistakes are failing to make a generous offer or failing to word an offer in a way that maximizes response.

For example, offers have gotten a 40 percent lower response rate when they were worded “15 Percent Off” compared to an offer that states “$10 Off.” Both offers could cost the business the same amount when structured right, but one elicits a significantly higher response rate than the other.

Some rules when creating good copy for your offers are:

(1) Make the offer concise and easy to understand.

(2) The offer should have high perceived value — would you inconvenience yourself to redeem it?

(3) Dollars-off or free-item offers always outperform percentage-off offers, so construct your offer accordingly. You also may want to consider including several offers in the mail piece you’re sending, with different valid dates to maximize your postage investment.

• Put your campaign to the test — Are you and one of your peers at odds about which offer will be more effective or which graphic design option will be the best? Then test them both. It’s much less expensive to send out small batches of test pieces to analyze which one drives a better response than it is to invest in a large direct mail campaign that underperforms.

Sarah Procopio, President of Thrive Marketing Science, a business intelligence and driven marketing firm. Sarah specializes in loyalty program development and turning around flailing companies and marketing programs quickly. She can be reached at sprocopio@thrivemarketingscience.com or 949.230.7873. This article was original published in the Denver Business Journal and can be found at https://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/how-to/marketing/2012/04/how-to-boost-your-direct-mail-response.html