Mailshots - The Definitive Guide

Any well-orchestrated marketing campaign best utilises print, personalisation and data management. With the correct expertise, it is easier than ever to know your customer and create marketing content that is masterfully engaging and persuasive. 

Mailshots are a wonderfully effective example of this style of savvy advertising. They allow businesses direct and carefully constructed contact with existing and potential customers, meaning it works both to retain and expand the pool of possible buyers. 

Impressive ROI rates from mailshot projects have naturally led to them becoming a favoured strategy for marketing teams across the public, private, and independent sectors. 

With a 90% open rate, direct mail is almost always ceased open by the customer. Not only is it attention-grabbing, but mailshots also go a long way in consolidating credibility and legitimacy for your brand, where 76% of customers trust and rely on direct mail while making purchase decisions. 

What are mailshots?

Mailshots are a way of formatting marketing and communication material to be sent to a large number of people. Typically, these are letters and postcards sent via the post that contain inviting offers and incitements on an organisation’s goods, services, or cause. 

Sorted’s diverse clientele is proof of the versatility of mailshots, ranging from retail, Pharmaceutical, charity, the public sector, and beyond. When a mailshot campaign is overseen by a direct mail company, their specialist tools, proficiency, and, as with Sorted, decades of experience in the industry maximises business outcomes, with an average of £14 return on each £1 spent. 

What to include in a mailshot 

From a simple leaflet to an artfully presented booklet, mailshots intend to promote flattering images and enticing information representing your brand. Whether it's gifting relevant vouchers, urgent time-sensitive discount codes, or personally addressing the individual or local area, small details like these pinpoint and heighten people’s interests. 

With the expertise of professionals in the business, huge untapped volumes of digital information can be unlocked and we can begin crafting a rich and insightful profile for your customer base. This will make perfecting your marketing strategy simple.

Here at Sorted, we are data-obsessed, and once again it paid off. Read our success stories with companies like Costco, where we utilised their current database to astutely and precisely target new audiences. For Costco’s campaign, we collaborated with Royal Mail where we uncovered an ocean of ideal potential Costco customers. 

Our geo-demographic targeting software then helped us identify whole neighbourhoods that mirrored the ones Costco was already popular with. Consequently, their mailshot project received optimum results that only worked to then further improve Costco’s marketing. 

This is thanks to our forward thinking approach where we never settle for mere short-term returns. Every mailer featured either a scannable QR code or trackable URL so that our success reports can meticulously pinpoint exactly where gains have been made and where there is room for improvement. 

Shoot your best (mail)shot!

The Sorted attitude to marketing is characterised by a holistic view of the whole process. What differentiates us from other direct mail companies is our full service. We oversee your campaign from its very conception right through to its completion. Hence, we’re knowledgeable in design, print, data management, and any other services that will advance your mailshot crusade. 

We are only too aware that our lives have been all but fully digitalised and that the average person is bombarded with online advertisements every passing day, so it is crucial to know how to stand out. 

Personalisation

Mailshots on behalf of supermarket campaigns are exemplary in how they have conquered the issue of personalisation. This is owed to the huge amounts of data they often have on their customers; the products they like to buy, their spending limits, and even the likely makeup of their family. It allows for each of their mailings to be completely unique to that customer, where they are shown their favourite items and their relevant deals.

For smaller businesses, it may prove more challenging to gather huge sways of relevant data, but Sorted can connect you to third parties to surmount this. This greater insight can then easily be used to your advantage, even something as simple as adding a name to your direct mail can increase responses by 135%. 

Targeting

Door drops are designed to reach a wide pool of people, but targeted mailshots are certainly something to consider if you have the budget.  Partially addressed mail can target prospects based on your existing customer base with greater detail and precision than door to door. Partially addressed mail targets a small group of 15 households but with great detail and precision. Reports show that this smaller, premium technique begets a better ROI than a cheaper mass mail dispatch. 

Partially addressed mail typically falls into two categories: Top-Up and Look-A-Like. Top-Up is aptly named as it aims to re-engage reliable customers by targeting postcodes they know will be interested in the company’s services. Look-A-Like, on the other hand, is an effort to expand the customer base by targeting new areas that share similar interests or characteristics with the existing customer base.

Relevance

Staple advice such as addressing individuals by their name is an effective, immediate attention-grabber, but this attention needs to be withheld if we are to see the full benefits of mailshots. We’ve all been made curious by the mention of our own name only to grow bored when the content is generic. Hence, it is best to cultivate varying styles of marketing so different mailshots can be sent to different groups of customers. 

Catchy design and copy 

Here is where you can really get creative. Sorted’s design team is interested in much more than simply smacking a logo on a brochure. Our work for West Midlands Safari Park is one example where we incorporated play and amusement into mailshot design. Our convivial, interactive pop-up leaflet was lovingly crafted for their Discover The Pride campaign, where three spectacular lions sprang towards the reader and up off the page when opened. Presenting something other than a standard display of information is another valuable avenue to explore when striving to cut through all the noise. 

Shoot your best mailshot with Sorted

Sorted Direct Mail is the fairy godmother to all your digital marketing needs. The technical experts at Sorted are based in the West Midlands and have over twenty years of invaluable experience. 

We provide services ranging from campaign production and design, partially addressed mail plans, printing services, packaging management, postage, personalisation tools, database management, and more. Unlike our competitors, our all-encompassing approach to digital marketing means you can centralise your project and work with a team who really gets you. With a bit more technicality than a magic wand, Sorted can transform a dull and null marketing strategy into an enchanting, premium, and fruitful operation that sends your business or organisation soaring. 

Contact Sorted Direct Mail today.