Create Personalized Direct Mail at Scale: How to Send with Success

Shakespeare famously wrote, “What’s in a name?”

As it turns out, names are actually quite important when it comes to direct mail personalization. In fact, they could quite possibly make all the difference between fostering meaningful relationships with your customers and having them looking elsewhere for business.

Let’s face it: Besides the joy that comes along with celebrating among close friends and family, there’s a reason why many of us still get excited by birthdays, the holiday season, anniversaries, and other special milestones in our lives: we usually receive gifts!

No matter how inexpensive or tiny, a personalized direct mail item will always feel like a gift. , And receiving anything with your name on it that was specifically picked out with you in mind makes you feel special and can certainly brighten your day.

Direct mail is no different.

Whether you’re sending out direct mail, corporate gifts, company swag, perishables, customer rewards, or other items, consider how you want your customers to feel when they receive your direct mail piece.

Do you want them to feel happy? Valued? Inspired to take action? Going the extra step to personalize each direct mail send can elicit those emotions. Plus, personalization helps establish a stronger bond between you and your customer. This is especially important considering consumers with an emotional connection to a brand have a 306% higher lifetime value.

Why Personalization in Direct Mail Matters

We know what you’re thinking—direct mail is a lot of work.

It can be easy to get overwhelmed by the many moving parts such as figuring out sourcing, logistics, shipping, and tracking. Let alone taking time to research the right direct mail item and adding a relevant message. And that’s for just one package! Whether you’re sending out 5 packages or 5,000 packages though, each package will eventually be opened by one individual at a time, so every delivery is an incredible opportunity to genuinely connect your recipients on a human level.

Customers are no longer impressed with lackluster, generic mail either. Research shows that 58% of consumers want a personalized experience. That’s important to consider when strategizing your direct mail campaign.

Personalization is not just for your customer’s benefit, either.

Forrester uncovered that 77% of consumers have chosen, recommended, or even paid more for a brand that provides a personalized service or experience.

Plus, 88% of U.S. marketers reported seeing measurable improvements due to personalization—with more than half reporting a lift greater than 10%.

These numbers prove how effective personalization can be in influencing your customers to engage with your product, and how detrimental it can be to keep your marketing efforts generic!

Don’t miss out on valuable business because you didn’t take the time to make your direct mail campaign count. (Strapped for time? Use a Sending Platform to help you personalize at scale with the click of a button.)

How To Create Personalized Direct Mail

There are plenty of ways to show the recipient of your direct mail how much thought you put into your send.

If it’s a one-to-one direct mail send, take the time to research your recipient. Are they active on social media? Find out what their interests are and try to align your direct mail with one of those! Did they recently have a baby? Are they a dog lover? Are they always traveling? Are they a huge basketball or football fan? Send them something you feel will actually add value in their personal or professional lives.

For direct mail personalization on a mass scale, your campaign still has the power to be effective. Make sure the item you’re sending is useful and practical. To keep your gift relevant, try breaking your customers up into groups based on their profession and send them something that will help make their day easier. For example, if a portion of your customers are field marketers, a high-end water bottle is a great idea for keeping them hydrated during long hours at a conference booth. Or, test out sending out items applicable to where your customers live like nice branded sunglasses for customers living in Florida, or fuzzy socks for customers in the Northeast.

Hint: Always include a handwritten note addressed specifically to every single recipient. Explain why you’re sending your item, what value you hope it can bring to your customer, and how much you appreciate them doing business with you. (Save yourself the hand-cramping. We’re happy to help you write all those notes.)

Next comes the packaging. For packaging, what’s on the outside does indeed count. Thinking literally “outside the box” can make a great impression, impact your company’s perceived value, and set your brand apart from other sends that may float across your customers’ desks. Don’t just use a white envelope or standard brown box. Enhance your package either with things like unique logo designs, custom patterns, and taping, or brightly colored crinkle paper.

This added step will definitely resonate with customers. People appreciate these small but memorable gestures, and in turn, will feel valued and learn to trust your brand. The more you can engage with your customers on a human (and by that we mean “friendly and casual”) level, the more they’ll look forward to communicating with you instead of thinking of your outreach as pushy pitch materials.Want to learn how else you can personalize direct mail? Book time with one of our sending specialists today! Or grab a copy of our most popular eBook below for more personalized direct mail ideas.