We Mail Smarter

UNDERSTANDING AND SELECTING A MAILING LIST:
A Household Level Mailing List and a Carrier Route Mailing List are two different types of mailing lists used in direct mail marketing campaigns. Here’s an explanation of each:

1. Household Level Mailing List: A household level mailing list is a list that specifically targets individual households and the attributes attached to the occupants. It contains contact information, such as names and addresses of individual residences. This type of mailing list is useful when you want to personalize your mailings and reach specific individuals or families based on the actual income, age, purchasing habits etc. of that particular recipient. Household level mailing lists are often obtained from various sources, including public records, consumer surveys, and commercial data providers like SmartLeads USA.

2. Carrier Route Mailing List: A carrier route mailing list is based on postal carrier routes. A carrier route refers to the specific area or route that a postal carrier covers for mail delivery. Instead of targeting individual households, a carrier route mailing list targets a group of residences within a specific geographic area covered by a single carrier route. This list includes all the addresses within that route, regardless of the occupants or individuals living in each residence, or the specific attributes to that particular address.

The main difference between these two mailing lists lies in their level of specificity. A household level mailing list allows you to target individual households, enabling more personalized communication and targeting based on how well your product or service matches their characteristics. On the other hand, a carrier route mailing list targets a broader group of addresses within a particular geographic area, which is useful for broader marketing campaigns or reaching a larger audience where specificity is not a concern.

When deciding which type of mailing list to use, it depends on the product or service you’re selling and how specific you need your target market to achieve maximum success. If you require a more targeted approach, a household level mailing list may be more suitable. If you want to reach a larger area or target a broader audience, a carrier route mailing list can be an effective option, as long as what you’re selling appeals to a broader audience.

For example, a large majority of homes eat pizza at some point during the month. This category of food product has a broad appeal to the masses. It may be just as effective to market to a carrier route list if this is your product category. However, if you’re selling Air conditioning systems, or new roofs, you want to be assured your audience lives in older homes and are actually the owner of the home. These categories will typically perform better when a household mail list is used in conjunction with your offer.

PRICE ISN’T EVERYTHING… WE’RE MAILING SMARTER!
Many direct mail companies will lure you in with a low cost mailer. They’ll make you believe that you’re mailing only to those households that need your product or service. However, this can be very misleading.
You see, the criteria that you’re looking to target can be applied either to the household, or to the carrier route. If it’s applied to the household, you can be assured that the homes that are receiving your mailer, meet the criteria precisely. This list will be more scattered and less saturated in a given geography, and ultimately the postage will be at a higher rate. Depending on your offering, this may be the smarter way to mail because you’re not wasting marketing dollars by presenting your product or service to recipients that don’t need you.

In contrast, if the criteria you’re looking to apply is done at the carrier route level, it is being applied to the entire area as an assumption. For example, if the criteria of homeowner, with a particular length of residence and home value are used, and these attributes are applied to the carrier route as opposed to the household level, this means that not everyone receiving your mailer will fit the criteria. This method of filtering is considered to be a loose filter and at an assumptive level. Therefore, it will be much less accurate and typically less effective.

While the carrier route option will be less costly on postage, it may not be worth it to invest in sending a message to recipients that don’t fit your targeting criteria. You will not only be paying postage, but also printing costs for each home that is mailed. Wasting money on non-qualified recipients can turn a great offer in to a poor performing marketing campaign.

When choosing SmartLeads USA, we will clearly explain these differences to you and lay out the options that make most sense for your product or service. Sometimes it may be the more expensive per piece option that will be smarter to mail. We look for the best performance and return on investment (ROI) as the smartest goal for your campaign.

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE IN COST?
A carrier route saturation mailing can have postage rates that are as much as $.12-.14 less per piece than a household level mailing. A household level mailing also requires a mailing list purchase which can add anywhere from $.02-.05 per name additional per piece. Even though this option may be a total of $.14-.19 more per mailer, it may be recommended as the smarter way to mail depending on your product or service offering.

DON’T BE MISLED BY THE COMPETITION…
Many mail houses want to get you in the door with a promise of the lowest cost. They’re in the business of carrier route mailings only, because most advertisers get trapped in asking the age old question of “What’s your cost per piece?” By only offering you the one option, they can have as much as a $.14-$.19 advantage in their deceitful price. However, they’re not giving you an apples to apples product comparison.

To make matters worse, when you ask if you’re getting a list that is targeting just specific criteria, they can legitimately answer yes. Typically, an advertiser will not be sophisticated enough to ask the next question, which is:
“Is the criteria you’re using for my mailing list being applied specifically to the household level, or is it being applied at the carrier route level?”
This question is imperative to ask because it forces them to answer honestly. You can also show them you’re not going to tolerate misleading information by asking them if they can tell you approximately how much the postage alone portion should be on your mailing. While most of us will give you an “all-in” price, a carrier route mailing will have raw base postage as low as in the $.19 range, and a household level mailing will be in the mid-high $.20’s to as much as low $.30s. This knowledge will guarantee you’re going to get what you pay for. Keep in mind these figures don’t represent the total cost of the mailing, they represent just the base postage portion. There are additional coats such as paper, printing, sorting, the list, as well as transportation and drop shipping.

CREATIVE AND MAIL PIECE DESIGN
While we’re big fans of postcards, we also offer letters, self mailers and many other options. Our expert staff will ask questions about your product or service, do a deeper dive on who your best recipient should be and design your fully customized mail piece accordingly.

We strongly believe in custom creation for each customer. Every company has a unique selling proposition, and we are not going to force you to use some generic postcard template because it easier for us. We’re going to custom create your mailer from scratch, with our highly talented internal design team.

We’re going to help you come up with the most compelling message, design, offer, and headline that you ever imagined. Each is as important as the rest, so we will take some time talking to you and learn about your business.

Educating you and making you smarter on how you approach your mailing is our biggest asset. Rest assured we have done this for thousands of companies spanning more than 25 years. You’re in smart hands and your campaign will have the best chance for success with SmartLeads USA. Let’s get started…. Call us at 888-795-MAIL (6245).