Is Direct Mail Personalization Important?

When creating direct mail, you have the option of customizing each mailpiece, but does it matter?

When putting together your direct mail marketing collateral, you have a few options to consider. One important decision you must make is whether to personalize the content for each recipient. This personalization can take a variety of forms, but the result is a better experience for the reader. But does it provide enough lift to justify the effort?

Here are three reasons direct mail personalization is important and can help take your campaign to the next level, followed by how you can get started.

1. Customers notice it

Perhaps the simplest reason to personalize your direct mail is that your customers will appreciate it.

Think for a second about situations where someone you barely know remembers your name.

How does it make you feel?

In most cases, someone remembering you will make you feel important and valued, which is precisely the type of feeling you’re trying to stir up in potential customers.

You can take these feelings a step further by customizing your direct mail material based on age, location, or the individual’s known hobbies. These steps show that you’ve taken an interest in your customer’s life.

Making your customers feel valued—rather than just one of the thousands of people that you’re sending advertising to—will improve your chance of getting a response and earning a sale.

2. Personalization improves targeting

How do you relate to your customers? What is sure to get their attention?

Every potential customer is different, and by customizing your direct mail material, you can target each consumer based on his or her unique profile. As you gather more data on your customers, you can use these points to personalize your advertising to make it more likely that your marketing will avoid the trash bin and receive a response.

Examples of variable information you can use to target potential customers include hobbies, income, location, age, and occupation. Every customer has different needs. By personalizing the content based on their individual preferences, you give yourself a better chance to make the sale.

3. You’ll get a better response

Targeting the right customers with the right offers will increase your likelihood of getting a response. Research shows that 55% of marketers receive more engagement when personalizing their direct mail, with an average increase of 17%.

That’s not exactly groundbreaking information, but it applies to direct mail personalization because you can alter your message and approach for every piece you send.

The more information you’re able to gather on each consumer, the more in-depth you can go with your customization and the easier it becomes to speak directly to them.

When you’re sitting in a crowded room, you naturally tune out most of the noise around you because there’s simply too much information to process. When someone mentions something that interests you, or even uses your name, you automatically start paying attention to that conversation again. That’s the impact of personalization.

The same happens with personalization in direct mail. The average consumer is presented with hundreds, if not thousands, of advertisements per day. You cut through the noise by personalizing your message to appeal to each individual, which drives better response to your message.

How to personalize your direct mail

How should you go about personalizing your direct mail marketing material?

Well, it depends on what you’re trying to accomplish.

One standard method of personalization is to include an offer based on your past interaction with that individual. By personalizing the offer, you can be confident that your mail will appeal to each recipient.

Other ways to personalize your mail piece is by including the recipient’s name, swapping out images, focusing on a specific industry, or offering a reminder of the customer’s past purchases. You’re likely collecting all kinds of customer data, this is when you get creative using it.

Personalizing your marketing material is easy through variable data printing, which automatically puts values into a template that you create. All you have to do is collect the data, and the variable data printing process will take care of the rest.

Gunderson Direct can assist you with any aspect of your direct mail marketing plan, helping you collect customer data, use it efficiently, and analyze your results to make future improvements. If you’re looking to increase your leads and close more sales through direct mail, contact us today.