What is Data-Driven Marketing? 8 strategies you need for your next direct mail campaign

What is data-driven marketing? And how can it improve my direct mail campaign?

Data-driven marketing involves analysing data so that you understand the needs and preferences of your target audience and can tailor messaging towards them. Done well, it can boost customer experience, foster loyalty, increase engagement and directly increase your ROI.

When applied to a tangible direct mail campaign, data-driven marketing can:

• Be highly personalised
• Get you in front of the right customers
• Make a greater impression
• Increase brand awareness and trust
• Play a key role in multi-channel marketing.

95% of direct mail is engaged with

31% of direct mail drives commercial activity

4.2 x Direct mail is interacted with an average of 4.2 times

How to run a successful data-driven direct mail marketing strategy

The quality of your data set can make or break a marketing campaign, whether it’s run online, offline or across multiple channels.

From demographic profiling to taking advantage of data cleansing services, here are 8 tried and tested ways to make your next data-driven marketing to a roaring success.

1. Run a data health check

Performing a health check will help improve the quality of your customer data. We offer a free personalised service to every customer planning a direct mail campaign, to help enrich your data and target your mailing better.

Data enrichment is important as it allows you to reduce mailing costs and more accurately target an engaged audience, increasing your overall ROI.

By running a check to see how clean or ‘dirty’ your data is, we can identify which other data cleansing services might be beneficial or provide data insights to help you understand and connect with your audience even more efficiently.

2. Cleanse your data

Data cleansing (also called data scrubbing) is a process which identifies errors in your data so they can be amended or removed. A full data cleanse may reveal incorrect or incomplete data or duplicate or corrupted entries.

At Eight Days A Week Print Solutions, we use a variety of techniques, tools

and software to spruce up your data sets. Once any issues have been identified, we can amend spelling errors and abbreviations and, in some cases, complete missing data.

Wondering how we do it? Our data cleansing service compares your data set to specific external files which can identify who not to mail (plus the reasons why) or provide up-to-date addresses for current customers. As well as identifying ‘goneaway’ records (people who have moved), we can link up to the Mailing Preference Service and National Deceased Register to help you retain data quality and data integrity, so you stay GDPR-compliant and respect the individual wishes and changing circumstances of your audience.

3. Carry out data profiling

Do you know who you’re talking to? Many marketers make assumptions about their target audiences without diving into the data. Not at Eight Days! Our customer profiling service runs data analysis to create clear, categorised audience groups based on key characteristics such as age or gender, lifestyle, purchasing history and more.

Audience targeting can help you to personalise your direct mail campaigns with laser precision so they connect with your customers on a personal level and better meet their needs, leading to increased engagement and conversion.

As well as painting a clearer picture of your customers, audience profiling can give you invaluable insights such as highlighting geographical areas where your targeted campaigns could be most effective.

4. Use personalisation

Once your data is up-to-date and you’ve carried out audience profiling to understand your customers better, you’ll be able to reap the benefits of personalisation.

By using variable data, we can help you to address mail to a named customer, make a mailing geographically sensitive or include information that matches their specific needs at a particular point, so they’ll be more likely to read it and take action.

Direct mail is already a highly engaging mode of marketing but, by tailoring your communications to the receiver and offering them a personalised experience, you’ll enjoy an even higher ROI, increasing brand awareness and building customer loyalty.

5. Try out data segmentation

How does segmenting data work? Also called list segmentation, mail segmentation is another form of personalisation and involves data manipulation, by splitting your mailing up according to bespoke audience groups and adapting messaging to their specific needs.

If you have a large data set of first-time homeowners, for example, you could segment the mailing further by honing in on geographical areas and making your direct mailer relevant to a local store or opportunity. The more attuned to your customers’ personal circumstances a mailing is, the more likely they will be to engage with it.

6. Take advantage of home mover marketing

There are few major life events that change people’s spending habits as much as moving house. As well as spending an average of £7bn on home improvements in the first year, the UK’s home movers splash out an extra £9bn on move-related goods and services annually.

Home mover marketing targets anyone who has moved into a new build property within a set period of time and provides a unique opportunity to gain new customers and raise brand awareness and loyalty during a period when your audience is in purchase mode.

We work with Royal Mail to provide home mover data services, allowing you to connect with a warm audience during and after this significant purchase.

7. Give Partially Addressed Mail a go

Keen to reach new customers? Partially Addressed Mail (PAM) campaigns personalise mailings to households rather than to individuals or specific postcodes. By addressing direct mail to ‘The Homeowner’ or ‘The Occupier’, you can make sure your message lands in the right hands and attracts the attention of a fresh audience.

By allowing us to analyse your audience database, you can also use Partially Addressed Mail to profile and target ‘lookalike’ customers, broadening your impact.

As well as offering an opportunity to track communications, Partially Addressed Mail is quick to send and can be scheduled to land on a specific date. By including a QR code or link to a unique landing page on your mailer, you’ll be able to track engagement and see exactly how many customers have followed up on your call to action. Similarly, we can help you to include a unique offer code to incentivise action and help you monitor customer response and uptake.

8. Buy data

If your database marketing is not working in the way you’d like, or you have your eyes on a whole new customer group, data purchasing may be the way to go.

We partner with various trusted data suppliers to offer you access to large new audience groups. Professional data providers hold relevant and trustworthy records on consumers and businesses, including contact details, key demographics, spending habits and more.

While you can collect your own customer data, purchasing consumer data from an established list can save a huge amount of time. Allowing you to channel your marketing budget into effective campaign materials instead of using it to conduct research or gather new insights yourself.

The benefits of healthy data

• Save money – Enjoy a higher return on investment.
• Target better – Plan a data strategy to ensure you’re delivering the right message to the right people
• Make things personal – Your customers will feel valued and understood
• Reduce waste – Only send communications where needed
• Build your reputation – Connect with engaged customers instead of being seen as a nuisance
• Increase ROI – See higher response rates for each campaign

Creating your data-driven marketing campaign with Eight Days A Week

It’s not just the data side of things that we can help with when it comes to direct mail print marketing.

Our team can lend a hand with all manner of printing services, helping you to select the right print method and suggesting types of paper for your job.

If you need to track the success of your campaign, we’ll advise on the best ways forward, or can help you to create a joined-up, multi-channel marketing plan to have a greater impact on your audience.

Postage is one of the most expensive components of any direct mail marketing campaign. Before you start artworking, our mailing house team can also advise on the best formats and print sizes so you are in prime position to take advantage of postal discounts and offers.