Direct Mail Association ROI: Unlocking High ROI Strategies

Almost three-quarters of marketers report that direct mail association ROI has improved over the past year, according to Deep Sync. As such, it is no surprise that people are seeking better ways to utilize it in 2025 and beyond.

It's time to unlock the untapped potential of direct mail and find new ways to achieve success within your business. With that in mind, what is the best way to go about that, and what are the key strategies to be aware of moving forward?

Read on to discover our key playbook for practical direct mail efforts, including how to:

• Tighten lists to avoid waste
• Sharpen creativity in marketing
• Claim incentives that help with ROI
• Understand what good strategies look like

Achieve mail campaign success with the help of Taradel today.

Direct Mail Association ROI Benchmarks for Small Firms

Effective direct mail can often be successful enough to rank at the top of ROI rankings across all offline media options. Usually, this is because recipients already trust your brand, either because they have manually signed up for what you offer or perhaps because you are a local brand. The direct mail is simply reinforcing what they already know to be true.

Alternatively, if your list of leads comes from prior customers who've already progressed through your sales funnel, your direct mail may serve as a reminder.

You can use this to your advantage. By leveraging the results and data you have from these past campaigns, you can:

• Understand your target audience before you begin
• Predict how many responses you are likely to get
• Use these prior responses as a key benchmark
• Understand how much ROI you are likely to get from each outreach effort
• Predict whether your investment is worth it

Your strategies and investments in each area can then reflect your expected returns, and any shareholders can also understand the expected future of your business.

In addition, knowledge of how successful previous campaigns were with specific groups and locations allows you to gather even more data on specific areas and demographics. Learning how their engagement may have changed over time helps refine future, longer-term marketing strategies.

Quick Taradel Math for Direct Mail Association ROI

Start by calculating your total investment by multiplying the cost of each piece of media by the number you plan to send. Then, divide the expected gross margin per sale by your prior response ratio. This ratio is what you earned per 100 mailers previously.

Comparing this number to your cost per piece of media allows you to confirm if you are likely to reach a positive ROI. If you are not, it is unlikely that you will experience challenges improving ROI. As such, you should hold off on sending anything out.

If your projected ROI is negative, then adjust the number of mailers or other variables until the numbers indicate that you will earn more than you spend. Naturally, if you are not planning to earn a profit, as the mailer is an early market visibility mailshot, then simply try to minimize your loss as much as possible.

Craft High-Response Mailers

The mailers you develop must capture the reader's attention in just a few seconds to be genuinely effective. As such, they need to have clear images that guide the eye towards a CTA and allow the reader to understand the benefits of the mailer immediately.

Ensure the imagery is also easy to understand so the context of the piece as a whole is clear. People need to know what they are being offered. Wordplay and jokes are secondary to this, as your priority should be moving people through your funnel faster than anything else.

Minor Design Tweaks to Try

A good design helps by reducing the amount of waste you create. Better-designed mailings mean that people can understand and follow the call to action with less effort. It can also lead to people engaging straight away instead of putting the mailer aside "for later."

As you put together your design, remember that any postcard needs to fit in a mailbox. Anything larger risks being bent or not being sent at all. Having a smaller postcard also limits the number of words you can fit legibly, which is often a good thing, as it allows you to be concise for fast scanning of the card.

If you choose to use QR codes to direct people to a website or a deal, remember to place them clearly in locations around the call to action, so that people understand their purpose. Also, separate them from postal barcodes or any similar imagery to ensure they are easily scanned.

You may also want to add a testimonial or two, or a review, as these can often significantly boost your credibility in the market.

Optimize Lists to Cut Waste and Raise ROI

Make sure your list of recipients is well-curated. Then, try using geofencing or other technology to better understand the people who are likely to have seen your direct mail mailshot.

You can then combine your direct mail effort with digital advertising, hyperfocusing on these individuals. NNE Digital saw an average increase in engagement of over 25% after implementing this targeting method in businesses.

Similarly, leverage every opportunity possible to use the data you have to predict future efforts and whether or not they will succeed. Geeks for Growth reported that this form of predictive analytics resulted in a sales increase in around two-thirds of cases.

However, you must learn how to implement it effectively to get the best results.

Ready to Boost ROI With Taradel Today

Direct mail marketing is a powerful tool for creating positive returns for your business. Taradel can help you combine it with other forms of media, including digital efforts, to get your campaign going quickly and effectively.

Using Facebook and Google ads and with a plethora of design experience, they can ensure your brand is both visible and strong.

Start planning your campaign with Taradel and discover how to establish a strong direct mail association ROI, and learn about other services we can offer you today.