What is a saturation mailing? ✅ Learn the benefits of saturation direct mail and how to get the lowest rates for your business to minimize mailing expenses
Saturation mailing is a cost-effective direct mail marketing method. It leverages the United States Postal Service's bulk mail services to send advertising pieces to many households within a particular area. It's designed to reach specific customers by name and Zip Сode, among other options.
If you're interested in trying out saturation mailing lists, this article is for you. We'll discuss saturation mailing, how it works, and ways to do it cost-efficiently.
What is a Saturation Mailing List?
Here's a simple saturation mail description: it's a collection of names and addresses of people in a specific geographic area. Saturation mailing lists are used by companies that want to reach out to many people for a particular purpose (e.g., local marketing).
But isn't that just another regular mailing list?- No.
A saturation mailing list is a collection of names and addresses that have been compiled specifically for bulk mail. It is different from a regular mailing list in that it's meant to send mail items to many recipients along a specific carrier route.
A regular mailing list will include the names and addresses of people who have bought products or services from your business or requested information about your business. It may also include the names and addresses of people who are not likely to be interested in your product or service.
On the other hand, a saturation mailing list will only include the names and addresses of people who have or are likely to be interested in your product or service based on age, gender, and, more importantly, geographic location.
A mailing list can be a great source of new leads. It can also help you build a stronger relationship with your customers, retain clients, and boost sales. Unlike other forms of marketing, direct mail does not aggressively summon attention (like email saturation lists), meaning that customers are not as likely to get tired of receiving items in their mailbox.
Here are a few benefits of saturation mailing lists:
Higher response rates. Email marketing saturation over the past few years has seen marketers waste valuable time and effort on inefficient email marketing techniques. You'll get a much higher response rate with saturation mailing than with email. People are more likely to respond to an email they receive from a company they know and trust.
Access to quality data. Having your customers' contact information means you can keep an updated collection of their data and demographics, which can help you better target them.
Stronger relationships. Building a strong relationship with your customers is one of the most critical business success factors. You want to make sure that when people think of your brand, they think of it as a business that cares about them. By focusing on a specific mailing route, you can nurture customers and more easily stay in touch with them.
Client retention: One of the main reasons businesses try hard to deliver fast and accurately is to retain their clients. Many customers have to deal with email saturation meaning little ability to keep up with all the emails from businesses that want their attention.
Saturated mailing is immune to the saturation rate of an email. Since these lists contain accurate customer information, your business can enjoy higher delivery rates. Customers who receive items early are likely to stick around for a long time.
Last but not least, saturated mailing lists can significantly bring down the overall costs of bulk mailing. However, this only happens if you do everything right. So, how do you get the lowest rates with saturation mail? Let's find out.
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How to Get The Lowest Saturation Mail Rates For Your Business?
Businesses that sell products or services tend to have a list of addresses collected over time. These addresses are not always accurate. Plus, they're usually dispersed across different routes - which won't get you lower rates. We'll get to that in a moment, but first, here's what to do to get the lowest saturation mail rates possible.
Get as Many Subscribers as Possible
There are two solid reasons why many subscribers are good for business. First, companies with many subscribers command a bigger market share. Secondly, having more subscribers means that you'll be able to send bulk mail.
While compiling your mailing list, don't forget to add an opt-in checkbox for legal reasons. Direct mail marketing is far different from saturation advertising, where marketers bombard the market with ads. Instead, you want to make sure you're only adding people who want to receive your newsletters, postcards, and other marketing material via mail.
If you're not sure, contact potential subscribers via email or SMS and ask them if they'd like to receive your print communications via mail. While at it, try not to saturate email with spam, or else your customers won't respond well, let alone see your emails.
Clean Your List
Saturation mailing lists are compiled using specific demographic and geographic information. These lists allow direct marketers to target specific groups of individuals, such as homeowners in a particular zip code or residents of a selected city.
To get the lowest saturation mail rates for your business, you need to ensure that your mailing list is as clean as possible. You'll have to remove any duplicate or inaccurate addresses from your list. No one does this better than Inkit Verify.
Inkit Verify automatically checks your customers' addresses on your website as they type. The software generates a list of valid addresses for the customer to choose from, reducing the chances of errors.
If you do not have a mailing list in your geographic area, you will need one. Two sure ways to get a list are working with a service provider or building one yourself. Remember, mailing lists bought from 3rd parties may contain errors, which you have to find and fix.
Determine where your customers live. You can do this by looking at their postal code. For example, if a customer lives in the US and you're selling to US customers, a US postal code will be used.
Next, you need to determine the state or province of the customer's location. You can also obtain this information from addresses. Customers' location helps determine the carrier routes you'll be working with (the path the USPS follows in mail delivery).
Remember the 90/75 Rule (Very Important)
You're looking for the lowest postage rate on a saturation mailing, so you must stick to specific guidelines. To qualify for that low cost, you should mail out 90% of all residential addresses in your route or 75% of both business and residential addresses within each carrier route.
USPS saturation mailing requirements say that when companies fall below the 90/75 rule, their direct mail campaigns are no longer eligible for the lowest saturation rates.
How Inkit Can Help with Saturation Direct Mail
Saturation direct mail can lower bulk mailing costs, especially for smaller and medium-sized businesses with limited resources. However, for tangible results, your business needs an automated mail strategy that reduces manual workflows.
Inkit Send is the best way to implement direct mail automation. It provides as low pricing as USPS saturation mailing but with more capabilities. With this API, you will be able to automate mail printing and delivery. Send also enables trigger-based mailings to include offline communications in cross-channel marketing campaigns.