So you’re sending out physical mail—maybe gifts, postcards, quirky swag, or good old-fashioned letters—to prospects or customers. You’re not alone: plenty of marketers swear by direct mail to cut through the digital noise. But here’s the rub: it’s not cheap, and if you can’t prove it works, your budget will vanish faster than you can say “personalized mug.”
This guide is for marketers, sales ops folks, and anyone else who’s trying to prove (or disprove) whether direct mail actually moves the needle. We’ll walk through how to use Reachdesk analytics to track ROI for your campaigns. No fluff—just the steps, some honest advice, and a few things to watch out for.
Step 1: Know What ROI Actually Means for You
Before you get lost in dashboards and tracking codes, get clear on what “ROI” looks like for your business. Direct mail isn’t magic—it’s just another channel. Are you trying to:
- Book more meetings?
- Speed up deals already in the pipeline?
- Win back churned customers?
- Get more event sign-ups?
Pro tip: Don’t just track “engagement.” Likes or warm fuzzies don’t pay the bills. Tie your goals to hard numbers—meetings booked, deals closed, revenue generated.
Step 2: Set Up Reachdesk Campaigns with Tracking in Mind
Reachdesk makes it pretty easy to send stuff, but if you want to measure ROI, you need to set things up right from the start.
Use Reachdesk “Campaigns” Properly
- Create a separate campaign in Reachdesk for every batch of sends you want to track ROI on. Don’t lump wildly different audiences or offers into one campaign or your data will be mush.
- Name your campaigns clearly (e.g., “Q2 C-Suite Gifts – Healthcare Vertical”).
Add Integration Touchpoints
Reachdesk can plug into your CRM (like Salesforce or HubSpot) and marketing platforms. This is non-negotiable if you want to match mail sends to actual deals or meetings.
- Make sure the integration is connected before you send anything.
- Map Reachdesk fields to your CRM fields. Double-check this—bad mapping = broken reporting.
Include Trackable Calls-to-Action
Don’t just send a box of cookies and hope for the best. Drive recipients somewhere you can measure:
- Use personalized URLs or QR codes that are unique to each recipient or segment.
- Include calendar booking links, event sign-up forms, landing pages—anything with analytics.
- If possible, pre-fill recipient info (so you can track who actually responds).
What doesn’t work: Sending generic gifts with no call-to-action. You’ll have no idea who engaged.
Step 3: Capture Responses and Outcomes
Sending is just the first half. Now you need to see what comes back.
Track Deliveries and Opens
Reachdesk provides delivery and open rates (for digital gifts or e-cards). For physical mail, you’ll know when it’s delivered, but not always if it’s opened or acted on.
- Use Reachdesk’s reporting to spot delivery issues (like bounced packages or wrong addresses).
- For high-value sends, consider following up with a personal email or call to confirm receipt.
Log Downstream Actions
This is where integration with your CRM helps:
- Did the recipient book a meeting? Mark it.
- Did they reply or convert? Log it.
- Did a deal move forward or close? Connect it back to the direct mail touch.
Pro tip: If you’re not connecting actions to contacts in your CRM, your ROI reporting will always be full of holes.
Step 4: Crunch the Numbers—Calculate Real ROI
Now that you’ve got data, it’s time to see if the spend was worth it.
The Basic ROI Formula
ROI = (Revenue Attributed to Direct Mail – Cost of Direct Mail Campaign) / Cost of Direct Mail Campaign x 100%
But revenue isn’t always immediate. Sometimes you’ll use “meetings booked,” “pipeline generated,” or “response rate” as your main metric.
- Cost: Don’t forget to include all costs—items, shipping, fulfillment fees, and Reachdesk subscription.
- Revenue: Only count deals or actions that can be directly linked to the campaign. If a deal closes six months later and had ten other touchpoints, don’t give direct mail all the credit.
Reachdesk Analytics Dashboard
Reachdesk’s built-in analytics show:
- Total sends, deliveries, and response rates
- Budget spent per campaign
- Gift type performance (what gets a reply, what gets ignored)
- CRM-linked outcomes (meetings, opportunities, revenue)
What works: Using these dashboards for a quick read on which campaigns are actually moving the needle.
What doesn’t: Relying only on vanity metrics like “gifts delivered” or “emails opened.”
Attribution: The Elephant in the Room
Here’s the honest part—attribution is messy. Direct mail is rarely the only reason a deal closes. Reachdesk can show you correlations, but not always causation.
- Single-touch attribution (giving all credit to one action) is easy but rarely true.
- Multi-touch attribution is better but gets complicated, especially if your CRM isn’t clean.
Don’t obsess over perfect attribution. Look for clear spikes in meetings, pipeline, or revenue after your campaign. If nothing moves, direct mail probably didn’t matter.
Step 5: Learn, Iterate, and Cut What Doesn’t Work
Direct mail isn’t cheap. If a campaign flops, don’t keep running it because “people liked the cookies.” Let the numbers guide you.
- Double down on offers or formats that lead to meetings or sales.
- Cut anything that’s all cost, no return.
- Experiment with timing, messaging, and follow-up sequences.
- Share results with your team—good or bad. Hype-free honesty will save you money.
Step 6: Avoid Common Pitfalls
A few mistakes you’ll want to dodge:
- Not segmenting your audience: Sending the same thing to everyone is lazy and wasteful. Segment by persona, deal stage, or industry.
- Poor data hygiene: If your CRM is a mess, your reporting will be, too.
- Ignoring the follow-up: Mail alone rarely closes deals. You need a real sequence—send, follow up, track.
- Overvaluing “positive feedback”: Just because someone said “thanks” doesn’t mean the campaign worked.
- Underestimating costs: Those little fees add up. Track every penny.
Step 7: Report Results—Honestly
When you share performance internally, show the good and the bad. No one’s expecting every campaign to be a home run.
- Show what you spent, what you got, and what you learned.
- If a campaign tanked, say so. If something worked, look for ways to scale it—without getting sloppy.
Keep It Simple and Iterate
Tracking ROI on direct mail isn’t rocket science, but it does take discipline. Set clear goals, connect your tools, and pay attention to what actually drives results—not just what looks good on a dashboard. Skip the vanity metrics, ignore the hype, and keep testing until you find what actually works for your team. Then do more of that. That’s how you make direct mail pay for itself—and keep your budget.