Reach vs. Frequency in Direct Mail Campaigns

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Direct Mail Reach vs Frequency: What are They and Why You Need Them

Reach and frequency are two of the most common terms related to marketing. But, most business owners do not understand the difference between reach and frequency. The business owners’ vague knowledge of the two marketing terms confuses them. In such cases, it is not uncommon for them to mistake reach with frequency and vice versa.

Here, we discuss the reach vs. frequency in direct mail campaigns. In addition to this, you will also learn why they are so crucial for your direct mail campaigns. We will talk about how you can optimize marketing mail frequency and reach and maximize your marketing results.

What Are Reach And Frequency In Direct Mail?

To put it as simply as possible, reach and frequency are terms you will often encounter in the marketing space. These terms may mean nothing to a customer. Still, they indicate how successful their marketing efforts were for a marketer.

What is Direct Mail Reach?

The reach of a direct mail marketing campaign is the number of people who view your direct mail campaign within a specified time. Both reach and frequency are standard terms in all kinds of marketing. In TV ads, reach is the number of people who view your ad while it plays on the TV.

Reach is the total number of people viewing or receiving your marketing mailer for direct mail. However, just like everyone that has their TV on does not watch it, all received mailers are not read. Effective reach is a much smaller number of people that most likely received your marketing message.  

What is Direct Mail Frequency?

The frequency is the number of times an individual target is likely to interact with your marketing message throughout a marketing campaign. Direct mail frequency statistics are essential for determining the effectiveness of your direct mail campaigns.  

You can boost your chances of creating a high-quality engagement with your target audience by increasing the frequency of exposure. In other words, the more direct mail messages you send, the more are your chances of creating a high-quality engagement with an individual target.

Why Should Businesses Focus On Frequency of Direct Mail Campaigns?

Both reach and frequency can help you determine the effectiveness of your direct mail campaigns and optimize it for better results. However, experienced marketers always focus their attention on the frequency of their marketing campaigns rather than the reach.

Yet, many newcomers often run after the reach because they believe the more their reach, the more their chances of conversion. They are convinced about the role of reach that they don’t even bother to factor in frequency. A direct mail campaign must always take reach and frequency into consideration.

You may be tempted to reach out to 1000 people with a one-time rather than reach 200 people 5 times. But guess which of these two options yields a better result for your business?

The latter option is more likely to generate the desired response with a higher frequency. Here is why

Reach Without Frequency is Money Down The Drain

Reach is significant to business marketing, and we know it. But, ask yourself, what does it take to get the desired response from the prospect with a single mailer?

The perfect strategy?

The perfect mailer?

Perfect everything?

Perfection is only something we can aim for and can never really achieve.

When it comes to marketing, attaining perfection or even near perfection is virtually impossible. But, you will see a more realistic result if you use the direct mail frequency statistics for optimizing your campaigns. So, if you want to see conceivable results for your direct mail campaign, you would need more than just one mailer.

Frequency is Essential For Niche Audience

Before going into the reach vs frequency debate, let’s look at it through an example. Let’s say that you own a real estate business looking for new potential sellers. And you are focusing all your efforts on a particular market or locality.

In this case, there is no point in reaching out to general audiences outside your niche. Even though people outside your target area may own real estate properties, the chances are minuscule.

The marketing message tailored for a specific niche audience may not resonate the same way with other audiences. In such cases, it is also essential to have specialized direct mail services for real estate businesses for ensuring the best results. And the same goes for every other industry vertical. 

Frequency is Vital For Targeting Prospects Who Are Ready to Buy

Let’s take the example of the real estate business again to understand why frequency wins the reach vs frequency argument. Suppose one of your prospective real estate sellers is thinking about selling their home. Assuming that the prospect is yet to finalize their decision, imagine the effect a well-timed direct mail can have on them.

Even if the target were to brush through the mailer, they would notice your real estate brand. And with a higher frequency of mailers, you are more likely to grab the attention of prospects. After that, it is just a matter of time before the target gets in touch with your real estate business.

Determining The Optimal Frequency Of Direct Mail Campaigns

Marketers know that the target audience generally responds to marketing campaigns after three or more exposures. We also know that the optimal reach and frequency can vary from business to business.

So how do you determine the ideal frequency for your direct mail campaigns?

The only way to find this is to test different frequencies and examine their result. So then what is the ideal frequency for direct mail campaigns?

It is the frequency with minimal expenditure and maximum response rate.

Direct Mail Frequency Best Practices

There are several best practices for optimizing your direct mail frequency, and some of the crucial ones are listed below:

Automated Direct Mail:

One of the reasons businesses are not too enthusiastic about high-frequency direct mail marketing is the effort it needs. You can set up high-frequency direct mail campaigns with a button with a fully automated system. To get a more holistic idea of automated direct mail, click here.

Testing And Analyzing:

Like any other marketing strategy, testing is crucial for optimizing your reach and frequency. Usually, advanced direct mail management tools such as PostGrid come equipped with robust testing and analytic capabilities.

Conclusion

The reach and frequency of direct mail campaigns play a crucial role in their effectiveness of direct mail campaigns. Unfortunately, many businesses only think about the reach and conveniently ignore the frequency aspect of marketing.

But, the truth is that reach without frequency is hardly adequate. In many cases, the frequent mailing is the only way to grab the target’s attention. However, there are also situations where reach is more important than frequency.

Hence, marketers should avoid the reach vs frequency argument and optimize the frequency based on their requirements. Using a direct mail automation tool like PostGrid is a great way to optimize your direct mail frequency. Such solutions can help you automate high-frequency direct mail campaigns and test the effectiveness of different frequencies for your campaign.

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source https://www.postgrid.ca/reach-vs-frequency-in-direct-mail/