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Why Suppression Matters In direct marketing, particularly with direct mail, it’s crucial to suppress certain groups from your mailing list. This strategy not only saves money but also enhances your campaign’s effectiveness. Here are some key reasons for suppression: 1. Cost Efficiency: Direct mail has a high cost per thousand, so targeting only the most relevant recipients is economically wise. 2. Consumer Preferences: People increasingly want the option to opt out of marketing communications. Respecting these preferences helps maintain a positive brand image. 3. Accurate Analysis: Including inappropriate recipients can skew your response rate analysis. For instance, one client discovered that nearly a third of their recipients should have been excluded, significantly affecting their response rate. Who to Suppress When advising clients on suppression files, we recommend excluding the following groups: • Existing Customers: Unless there’s a compelling reason to contact them, avoid sending mail to active customers to prevent confusion and save resources. • Deceased Individuals: Utilize the national deceased file, which is updated monthly, to avoid sending mail to deceased persons. • Do Not Solicit (National File): Consumers can opt out via DMA Choice. Ensure you respect these requests by running this file through every mailing. • Do Not Solicit (Internal File): Maintain an internal list of individuals who have asked to be removed from future mailings. While direct mail isn’t heavily regulated by privacy laws like CCPA, it’s best practice to honor these requests. • Declined Prospects: If you’ve recently declined a prospect, wait until their situation changes or enough time has passed before remarketing to them. This is especially relevant for fintech and financial services marketers. • Ex-employees: In competitive industries, it’s wise to avoid mailing ex-employees by removing them from seed lists. • Competitors: For B2B marketing, exclude competitors’ staff from your mailing lists to prevent them from gaining insights into your strategies. A simple exclusion list of business names can address this concern. Final Thoughts Don’t overlook the importance of suppression files. Consider past, present, and future prospects who should be excluded from mailings to save money, improve response rates, and avoid potential privacy issues. Start working on suppression early and provide it to your data processing partner when delivering prospect data to keep mailings on schedule.