How to measure your direct mail campaigns accurately

As the recession puts the squeeze on marketing budgets, marketers and advertisers need to improve campaign ROI by measuring their direct mail campaigns more accurately. Marketing evaluation expert John Billett, of www.johnbillett.com, outlines four common misconceptions which lead to direct mail being inaccurately measured and offers valuable insights into how to make your evaluation more precise.

He advises:

- looking at long-term brand benefits to campaigns, as well as immediate response

- taking preceding - and subsequent - campaign activity into account, rather than viewing the campaign in isolation when assessing impact

- evaluating direct mail in conjunction with other media

- using absolute rather than relative performance metrics.