Reach more people with partially addressed mail

This may sound counter-intuitive as ‘partially addressed mail’ may sound like there is missing information – and your mail may not get to the right place. But this is actually a very clever strategy to extend your marketing reach, without breaching the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

What is partially addressed mail?

It’s an effective way of reaching more people in a postcode area. For instance, if you have a customer in a particular postcode area, you can add all the other households in that postcode to your mail-out.

The logic is that if you have one customer in that area, other similar households are potentially going to be interested in your offer too. As each postcode has around 15 different addresses, this allows you to multiply your existing contacts by 15.

How does it stay compliant with GDPR?

Partially addressed mail doesn’t use specific names – it is addressed to ‘The Householder’ or ‘Fashion-lover’ or whatever is appropriate for your potential customers. This means you’re not processing personal data, so meets the requirements of GDPR.

Each piece of mail needs to have a statement on the envelope e.g. ‘No recipient’s personal data has been used in the creation of this mailing’.

What are the benefits of a partially addresses mail campaign?

• The big one is cost – there is a lower postal charge for partially addressed mail. This can reduce the cost per item by up to 4p (depending on volume).
• There is no data-acquisition cost, so you can improve your reach, without the cost of buying a list.
• The Royal Mail estimates that you’ll communicate with 30% more households with the same budget.
• Existing customer profiles can be used to identify similar profile areas. This will increase the number of potential addresses beyond just the original postcode.
• The engagement for partially addressed mail is approximately double that of simply sending outdoor drop flyers.

There is a minimum requirement of 10,000 items per mailing and this will go to all households in each targeted postcode – excluding existing customers.

You can find out more about direct mail – there are many smart strategies to improve your results.