With a crowed inbox full of marketing emails trying to grab consumer attention, physical mail is an essential marketing tool to stand out in the marketing mix. It attracts the attention on consumers through its tangibility and ability to be personalised. But isn’t sending mail expensive? It doesn’t have to be – there are a range of mail type options available to suit all budgets and requirements, including partially addressed mail, which is proven to have a positive impact on your ROI, if used effectively.
What is Partially Addressed Mail?
Partially addressed mail sits between direct mail (mail that is addressed directly to a customer), and door-drops (such as leaflet distribution). Direct mail requires full address details and is based on targeted data or client lists, whereas door-drops only need a postcode sector and is best used for high volumes where limited targeting is required. Partially addressed mail is an effective strategy that merges the low-cost benefits of larger quantities from door-drops, with the specific targeting benefits of direct mail, making it a smart and cost-effective method of expanding a customer base.
Why use partially addressed mail?
- JIC Mail data shows that 93% of consumers engage with partially addressed mail, and revisit it around 3.8 times on average.
- 29% of partially addressed mail plays a direct part in driving commercial actions.
How to use Partially Address Mail effectively – Postcode Data
When sending out a partially addressed marketing campaign excluding your existing customers is key to ensure that you are GDPR compliant. Therefore, expanding your data set using one of the two following techniques can ensure your marketing campaign reaches new consumers that are relevant to your business.
- ‘Topping up’ – you can add to your existing client data through ‘topping up’ your data set, targeting your marketing mail at postcodes where you already have plenty of existing customers. This will allow you to send local offers and incentives to a consumer base, and/or allow you to have greater penetration in areas where you know your product or service is already being used.
- ‘Lookalike’ – purchasing ‘lookalike’ data for postcode areas that house prospects that look like your existing customers is a great strategy to enhance your data set. This strategy allows you to target products at a target consumer who you know already have an interest in your brand/ products.
It is widely recommended that using a blend of both of the above techniques would leads to a wider, high-quality coverage resulting in a successful campaign.
How to use Partially Addressed Mail effectively – Personalising your Marketing
Whilst partially addressed mail doesn’t allow for names and full addresses, there are other ways to add a personal touch to your marketing mail campaign.
- Adding greetings that are related to the content as a way to draw in interest is a great technique to engage your audience. For example, a book store might address their recipient as ‘Dear Book Lover’ or a holiday company might use ‘Dear Sun-Seeker’.
- If you are using ‘Top Up’ data, adding localised phrases / imagery can make your marketing mail feel more personal and relevant to your target audience. For example, ‘Grab a deal, m’ duck’ in the Midlands, or an image of Stirling Castle in Scotland might just secure you a commercial action off your mail campaign.
A Strong Set of Data is Essential to the Success of Your Partially Address Mail Campaign
Having a strong and clean data set is vital to your campaign. Knowing your mailing is not hitting the door mats of gone aways can help to ensure that you get a positive return on your investment.
Have you already purchased a data set, or have an 6 month+ old set of data you want to use?
At Citipost Mail, we are currently offering a free data health check on your marketing mail data through our Pure Data product. The health check uses the UK’s largest and most inclusive suppression suite to check your marketing data, providing you with a full report on the number of addresses in your data set that need to be removed and why. Claim your free data health check here.
Are you considering purchasing new data?
Typically, purchased ‘lookalike’ data has been drawn up using geo-demographic data products to select the streets to target. However, Citipost Mail’s Pure Data service can deliver you data with more effective targeting, finding streets where there is a much higher concentration of individuals that look like your existing customers using key insights such as financial status, home ownership, age, interests, and affluence to name but a few.
To find out more about how partially addressed mail can work as an effective part of your marketing strategy, give our team a call on 0203 2500 240 or visit our Pure Data services page for more information.
To find out more about Pure Data for partially addressed mail, take a look at our fact-sheet HERE
Sources:
JICMAIL database – 2023
