What Format of Direct Mail is Best?

Types Of Direct Mail Materials

If you are considering direct mail marketing to generate leads and grow your business, it's important to know the various options in terms of direct mail materials. While there are four major types of direct mail, each one has its own unique advantages.

Picking the right direct mail type will help you reach your audience better and achieve your marketing objectives.

Four Main Direct Mail Marketing Types

Letter Mailers

Letter marketing is a cost-effective and personalized way to communicate with your target market. As per DMA (Data & Marketing Association), letters have a 4.3 percent response rate.

The US Postal Services considers standard dimensions between 3.5'' x 5'' and 4.25'' x 6' as postcards. A direct mail marketing material larger than this size qualifies as a letter.

Monarch envelopes with dimensions of 3-⅞ x 7-½, announcement envelopes with sizes ranging from A-2 to A-10 are used for mailing small booklets, brochures, or pictures.

Jumbo and oversize envelopes with dimensions ranging from 6" x 9" to 9"x12 or more are perfect for sending booklets and catalogs.

Postcards Mailers

Postcard marketing is a great way to achieve your marketing goals on a tight budget. The most commonly used postcard sizes include

• Standard postcard with dimensions of 4¼" x 6″
• Jumbo postcard measuring 11″ x 6″
• Oversize postcard measuring 9″ x 6″

Catalog Or Brochure Mailers

Catalogs have continued to be powerful marketing tools for over a hundred years. According to DMA (Direct Marketing Association), 91 percent of businesses consider catalogs to be one of the top marketing tools. Right from driving website traffic, generating leads to converting leads to sales, catalogs provide exceptional results.

Catalogs are a perfect way to showcase your product lines and enable prospects to discover new ones, whether your business is related to:

• healthcare
• furniture
• beauty products
• construction
• fashion
• home improvement
• automobiles and others.

Catalogs can be considered as oversized direct mail marketing material. Large direct mail materials such as attractive and informative catalogs offer a high return on investment. Statistics show that 42 percent of prospects read a catalog received as direct mail while 60 percent visit the brand website after reading the catalog.

Dimensional Mailers:

When you want to go beyond flats to capture the attention of prospects, like never before, what you need is a dimensional mailer. Dimensional mailers have the best open rate and response rate among other direct mail marketing materials as per a DMA's annual report.

Tubes, pop-up cubes, boxes to telescoping mailers are some types of directional mailers that encourage the prospect to absorb the marketing message while engaging with the mailer each time. The engaging power of. dimensional mail is 20 times more than flats while response rates go up by 75 percent. For instance, a software company sent a wooden train in a box along with tracks to its prospects with the caption "Wondering how to keep your organization on the right track?"

Whatever your choice of direct mail marketing material, it is important to obtain an accurate mailing list. The mailling list is the starting point for segmenting your audience based on specific criteria, personalizing your message and achieving your marketing goal.