5 Reasons to Seed Yourself
One thing that many direct mailers often forget to do is to add their own name – or the names of trusted friends and/or associates – to their mailing lists. This is often called “seeding” and may not seem logical right off the bat. After all, you probably designed or were directly involved in the design of the piece. Chances are, you probably have at least a few samples laying around the office, or maybe entire boxes as a result of printing overages.
Why on earth would you want to mail one to yourself?
Because it’s a good way to track certain things, and to give you a better overall sense of how your direct mail piece is working (or not) for you. In this post, we’re going to look at five good reasons why you might want to make sure that your name is seeded in your database.
1. Track Delivery Times
It can be incredibly useful to know when your pieces are hitting the mailboxes and desks of your prospects and clients. This can give you a meaningful heads-up as to when you can expect calls to start coming in, which can be valuable for your call center or sales staff.
If you are mailing cross-nationally, it would be a good idea to also seed cross-nationally if possible. This will give you a way to determine how long pieces are taking to arrive in different parts of the country. Record these times across multiple mailings and look for patterns that can help you establish more effective timelines for your projects.
2. Track Quality
You’ve probably invested a lot of time, thought and money into your direct marketing pieces, and you want to make sure that they look good when they arrive in the hands of the recipients. Seeding yourself is a great way to test this, and see for yourself exactly what the piece looks like after having come so bravely through the postal system.
Does it still look great? Or, do you find yourself recoiling from the damage that has been inflicted upon it?
3. Look For Areas to Improve
Related to the previous point, receiving your own piece can help determine if there are any areas in which it could be improved. If the piece is, in fact, damaged somehow when it arrives, look at the damage and try to determine what might have caused it. Also, try to establish if there are any steps that you can take to help protect the piece (or a similar piece) in future mailings.
This is especially true when working with some larger and more expensive types of mailers. In the past, we’ve worked with several different high-end presentation and pillow boxes, which were quite expensive to produce. There was some empty space in this packages and testing indicated that they were prone to being crushed when travelling through the postal system. As a solution, we developed folding, accordion-like cardstock spacers to add extra support in these empty areas. This helped minimize the crushing so that the pieces would arrive at their destination in the best possible shape.
Of course, some simple sampling and preliminary testing can really help eliminate any transportation issues from the outset. Still, seeding yourself makes for some solid insurance and will help keep you abreast of anything that may not have crept up in your testing.
4. Evaluate Visibility
When your mailer arrives in your recipients’ mail boxes, just how visible is it? This is probably information that would be valuable for you and seeding your data file is a great way to start making assessments in this area.
Keep an eye out for when your mailing piece finally shows up in your mailbox. However, when it does arrive don’t just pick it out and take it to your desk. Look at all the mail that arrives as a whole. Does your piece stand out from the crowd? If not, what can you do to improve visibility? How can you make it appear more important, or at least more worth of your customer’s attention?
Successful direct mail is all about testing and tweaking, and seeding names in your database is a great way to help put yourself in your customer’s shoes.
On that note, be sure that you are putting yourself in your customer’s shoes, by directing the mailing piece the same way you’re directing all the rest of the pieces. For instance, if you are mailing to consumers rather than businesses, consider seeding your personal residence rather than your place of business. The opposite is also true. This way, you will see the piece more in the context of your customers.
5. Protect Your Mailing List
This one may not apply to everyone, but seeding is also a good way to protect your mailing list. If you’re like many mailers, you might lend or rent their your list (or portions of your list) to other businesses who might have something valuable to offer your clientele. This is a great way to build relationships with other businesses, but you want to protect yourself and make sure that your mailing list is not being used outside of the terms of your agreement.
Again, seeding is a great way to do this. If a piece arrives that you were not aware of, that can be a red flag that someone is using your list in a manner that contradicts a predetermined agreement. The trick here is to use a dummy contact name and an address other than your business address. This way, the record will not be obvious as a seed. The dummy name will also make it easier to recognize a piece as one that is using your data.
Hopefully, you will never actually see an unexpected piece arrive with your seed names, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry.
Well, there you have it – five different reasons why you might consider seeding your own name(s) and address(es) on your data file. If you have any concerns or questions please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or to contact us directly!
