One old and popular type of marketing is direct mail marketing. It is typically run by using public addresses kept by state and local governments across the country.
Marketing firms would usually collect these public addresses and then curate a mailing list using the addresses. Then they will sell the list to firms and businesses for their marketing endeavors. Sometimes, depending on the terms of the contract the marketing firm may even be the ones to send out mails to the addresses on behalf of the business.
While direct mail advertising may have some drawbacks, it does have several other benefits to make up for these cons. This marketing strategy has several alternatives like web design, PPC advertising, local SEO, and social media advertising. Click here to learn more about these marketing strategies. Despite these alternatives, most businesses tend to engage in direct mail campaigns while overlooking one of its biggest drawbacks; its pricey nature.
But how much does this form of advertising cost? This is the question we intend to answer in this article. Below we will give a breakdown of direct mail costs.
1. Setting Up
The first step you have to take for your direct mail venture is the setup stage which typically involves graphic design. This is the stage where you form the mail’s content and its imagery before the ad gets printed.
This stage shouldn’t cost you much since you can simply doityourself if you have substantial graphic designing skills. If you don’t then, maybe a staff in your company could do the honors. If this isn’t feasible, then you can simply employ a graphic design freelancer. Hiring a freelancer usually isn’t expensive.
But you have to make sure that a great job is done regardless of who does it. The last thing you want to do is create an ad nobody will find appealing. If this is the case, then your efforts most likely won’t pay off.
2. Setup Fee
The next step would be getting a service provider and paying them either for just a mailing list or for their additional services. More often than not, direct mail service pricing and the services and list you get will be based on different factors. These factors include the people to be reached, the quantity of mail to be sent, and the goal you intend to achieve with the strategy.
Therefore, the pricing for this service typically ranges from as low as 50 dollars to as much as 7,200 dollars based on the job’s criteria.
Providers of this service typically have their flat rates. However, there’s a possibility of the costs recurring per month, quarterly, or even yearly. In cases like these, the direct mail most likely will be significantly costlier than what we’ve estimated above.
This isn’t the only cost to be concerned about as you’d also have to cover supplies and other expenses.
3. Media Costs
When we say “media” here, we mean ink, stamps, envelopes, paper, and every other supply needed to make mailing possible. Usually, marketing firms that provide direct mail services often sell the needed supplies alongside their services. If this is the case, then you may pay an average of 52 dollars for one batch.
This cost could be considered relatively cheap since it wouldn’t increase your bill that much. But if your goal is to run several campaigns using different mailing lists, designs, and of course supplies, then the final price of everything may be times 2 or 3 of what we stated.
So, theoretically, you could spend beyond 22,000 dollars in one year if you choose to run multiple campaigns. This may even be significantly more based on your campaign goals.
4. Continuity
Finally, your provider most likely will charge you a fee to continue the service; think of it like subscription fees. Also, if you intend to run your campaign(s) for along period, then extra fees will be added to what you were payingalready.
These additional costs typically come from resupplies, reprints, redesigns, and other things that have to be done again. So, the cost may likely increase yearly and you may soon find the sustaining costs to be quite substantial.
But despite the costs, this strategy could turn out to be the most effective for your business. A lot of businesses still use direct mail despite its cost because of the benefits it offers them. You can visit https://smallbusiness.chron.com/to find out the major advantages of direct mail marketing.
Conclusion
Direct mail marketing has been around for a long time. Despite this, it is still being used by several businesses in the country. However, this venture can be quite costly when several factors needed to run it are considered. In this article, we have broken down what it will cost any business to run a direct mail marketing campaign.
