How to Measure and Track Direct Mail

There is a problematic assumption that direct mail is not measurable in the same way that digital marketing methods are with click rates, rankings and analytics.  However, the reality couldn’t be further from this belief and there is even an industry body that undertakes independent research and measurement of direct mail campaigns in the UK.

It is easy to assume that a direct mail campaign has performed well when you see an increase in leads, sales, or donations, however you need to know what particular aspects of the campaign have been the most successful. This way, you can refine and tweak what works best for your organisation to make the most of subsequent direct mail campaigns.

So, what is the best way to accurately establish reliable tracking methods to gauge direct mail return on investment and response rate?

Here are 4 ways to track and measure the success of your direct mail campaign.

One thing to note before measuring any direct mail campaign is to define your measurement goals. For example, is the goal to: reach new customers? Retain current customers? Increase sales? Boost website traffic? Identifying these goals before starting will help keep the campaign focused and determine what to test and what results to measure.

1. Vouchers/ Coupon Codes

Linking a code to an offer in the mail piece is an excellent way to track action rate. By totalling the number of redeemed codes, you can establish the exact number of resulting visitors to your site.

2. QR Codes

Adding QR codes is a fantastic way of measuring success. To ensure you can measure which visitors came to your site through the code, you can create a campaign specific URL. If you would like to learn more about QR codes, you can read more here.

3. Trackable phone numbers

Trackable phone numbers are unique local or toll-free numbers that are applied to the marketing campaign you are running. That way you can gather data on how the campaign is performing by being able to find the detailed source that led to the call.

4. Campaign specific URLs

Using campaign specific URLs enable you to pinpoint exactly which visitors came to your site as a result of the direct mail campaign. These are great as you can view in your analytics how many users visiting that URL, rather than just seeing an overall spike in visitors. You can create Campaign specific URLs in Google’s URL Builder here.

Take a look at this example of how you can implement these methods onto a mail piece.

By using one or all of these approaches, you will be able to track the success and measure the response of your direct mail campaigns. Once you know what works best for you, it will help you be more strategic when devising your direct mail strategy.

If you need help with any of the tracking measures we have discussed above, get in touch and our friendly team will be happy to help. Email Sales@bpdm.uk or call 01905 621 118.