Improve Your Direct Mail ROI...

Small changes can make a big dent in your mailing budget. In a survey by Target Marketing magazine, marketers say they're reducing direct mail costs by: switching vendors (26%), not mailing low response areas (22%), reducing weight (22%), merging/purging lists (15%),

The biggest cost of direct mail is postage. So reduce it -- either by cutting per piece postage or eliminating non-productive names. If you keep your own database, running it through NCOA (National Change of Address) and doing a merge/purge annually can pay for itself ten times over. And often, a new vendor can help you find other new ways to cut costs.

In my experience, if your database hasn't been updated in 18 months, you're wasting about 20% of your budget -- based on address changes alone. For instance, I got a telemarketing call last week for my dead grandmother. Really. I bought my grandparent’s home years ago -- and changed their number to my name. That database must be at least 7 years old! What a waste of money!

- Phil Sasso