How to Measure Incremental Impact of Direct Mail

Looking at incremental impact should be a part of every marketer’s data gathering checklist. After all, it’s an extremely helpful marker for those marketers who advertise in multiple channels and desire to compare the effectiveness of a single tactic. Fortunately, measuring the incremental impact of direct mail is surprisingly straightforward.

Take this online retailer, for example. In the case of this billion-dollar beauty company, they set out to measure three distinct populations when testing a new direct mail format:

• Those who received their traditional direct mail piece

• Those who received a Hallmark card

• Those who received nothing at all

Once the test was complete, it was time to measure. Here’s what the measurement looked like:

This measurement plan established what incremental response rate, revenue and return-on-ad-spend (ROAS) was driven by the mailed pieces specifically. In turn, the company found a clean ROI or ROAS calculation.

For an even deeper look into this example, read our case study that explains how an online retailer improved its ROAS by 50% by using Hallmark cards. Get the case study.