The push to get client marketers to sign up for “partially addressed mail” – hailed by some as the saviour of the direct mail industry – has received another boost with the launch of a new service from Whistl Doordrop Media.
Royal Mail first developed the scheme, designed as a “middle ground” between door-drops and fully addressed direct mail, last year. It helps marketers circumvent GDPR regulations by implementing geodemographic targeting on a postcode level, without the use of personal data and using salutations such as “home owner” or even “pizza lover” and “holiday jetsetter”.
It is claimed that “PAM” can cut the cost of postage by about 20%, while data costs are slashed as there is no need to purchase personal data, and, according to Royal Mail, it is up to 165 times more targeted than door drops.
Royal Mail trials are due to run until March next year but it is understood to have already started to develop new PAM products, ahead of gaining regulatory approval from Ofcom.
According to research carried out by Jicmail, the audience measurement project for the mail industry, PAM stays in the home for 7 days, of which 88% are read.
Meanwhile 26% of partially addressed mail items were found to prompt a commercial action, compared to 31% of direct mail and 10% of door drops.
It was also found that PAM is effective at driving online traffic – with 14% visiting the sender’s website, and word of mouth – with 13% discussing the mail item with someone else.
Whistl DDM managing director Mark Davies said that client marketers can begin to assign budget for next year with confidence.
He added: “We can work with brands and charities to create highly targeted mailings that result in excellent conversation rates. Combined with traditional door drop or direct mail, PAM can be an effective tool in a fully integrated letterbox-based advertising campaign.
“Our charity client Blind Veterans used PAM and recruited the same amount of donors it would expect to recruit during a traditional direct mail campaign but at a lower cost per acquisition.”
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