There's never been a better time for Direct Mail. The DMA reports that in 2018 the response rate was 4.9% for prospect lists and an incredible 9% for house lists. That's double the previous year. And the highest since the report started in 2003. Direct Mail pulls higher response rates than any digital direct marketing channel with response rates about five to nine times greater than email, paid search, and social media. Add the fact that roughly 66% of people have bought something because of direct mail, and you could be easily fooled into thinking everything in the industry is perfect. But there's a hidden story.

It’s the story of massive waste, corner-cutting, and cost inefficiency. Over 147 billion pieces of direct mail get delivered to customers every year. And companies spend billions to manage these campaigns without knowing if they're getting true value from service providers. But a closer look reveals some startling facts:

• Building a list of lists plan is often a manual non-standardized process handled by one person so it takes more time and costs more to build. And the margin of error is increased.
• Many printers and direct mail agencies build predictive models with data that is insufficient or not prepped correctly. This leads to inaccurate predictions that drive major marketing and investment decisions
• Direct Mail industry profits are often driven by volume, not value-added, so campaign data is often skewed toward "mail more" strategies, thereby costing more.
• Short-term (next campaign and the same campaign as last year) thinking means companies often double down on campaigns that don't deliver an improved ROI.

And the list goes on.

In truth, companies and nonprofits can earn or raise more by improving these outdated processes. But first, they must be able to spot the inefficiencies by doing three things better than anyone else:

1. Bring together customer (donor if you are a nonprofit) and marketing data from multiple sources.
2. Simplify the process of extracting data, and turning that data into a usable form for marketing analysis.
3. Use predictive analytics and execution optimization to improve campaign performance, and enable better investment decisions.

By reducing cost through domain knowledge, improved data quality, process efficiency, and accurate, factual reporting, ROI will increase. And that's where Datamize comes in.

Datamize solves the inefficiency problem in the Direct Mail Industry by bringing people, data, and technology together.

We are database marketing experts who transform direct mail marketing operations using advanced predictive analytics tools and artificial intelligence. We function as your full-stack data team or support team made up of:

• Data Scientists
• Data Engineers
• Data/Marketing Analysts
• Solution Advisors
• Technologists
• Data Programmers
• Business Intelligence Specialists

With experts in Alteryx, Google Data Studio, Tableau, and more, we prepare, transform, integrate, blend, and model your data from multiple sources using advanced data workflows and visualizations. And we develop machine learning models to give you predictive segmentation and personalization insights in less time with greater impact.

If you're new to predictive analytics, and not sure how to get started, we bring you up to speed with the latest advances in data analytics without the high cost.  Contact us today to learn more about how you can put predictive analytics to work and improve ROI for your next Direct Mail campaign.

"People working together is what makes technology effective."

Judah Fontz - CEO & Founder, Datamize

We are a people-first company. And for us, that means having team members with an insatiable curiosity, who are open-minded and adaptable. We explore the origin of everything and ask deeper questions to find better answers. We rely on our domain expertise but always remain open to learning new ways of growing and improving. We embrace technology fully but don't leave our independent analysis and creativity at the door. And we welcome a challenge. The bigger, and more impossible-seeming, the better. On a more practical note, we're easy to get along with - and that's important. Because our first goal is always to be helpful. Helpful in solving the inefficiencies in your direct marketing operations, and helpful in creating more profitable outcomes. To do this we:

• Examine your current process, and present detailed analyses that outline problems, opportunities, and solutions based on your needs, expectations, and key performance indicators
• Discover and harvest data, as well as structure and integrate data from different sources
• Interpret, evaluate and interrelate data and develop integrated analyses and projections for better decision-making
• Orchestrate repeatable, actionable, and insightful reporting that spots trends and opportunities for improvement
• Deliver accurate, ad hoc analyses that investigate ongoing or one-time issues
• Deploy machine learning, data mining, and statistical modeling to predict customer behavior
• Implement machine learning for optimizing response rate, retention rate, lifetime value, market timing, and more.
• Produce data visualizations that make it easier to see the big picture, ask better questions, and make smarter decisions.

And this is only the start. As the sworn enemy of inefficiency in the Direct Mail industry, we are constantly adding to our technology expertise. And constantly figuring out better ways to bring your Direct Mail Marketing safely and profitably into the future.