When Is the Best Time to Send Direct Mail?

Key Takeaways

There isn’t a universal best time of year to send direct mail for every business.
What the best time to send direct mail is depends on your audience, industry, product or service, campaign objective, and your previous campaign results.
Plan your campaign backwards from when you want your mail piece to arrive, ensuring that enough time for production, postal preparation, and delivery are planned.
Seasonal demand and holidays can create opportunities for marketing, but mailers need to account for postal holidays and other timing considerations when planning their campaigns.

Introduction

When is the best time to send direct mail so they reach their intended recipients at the right time? This can be a difficult question to answer, as there are several variables that can affect when the best time to mail is for particular audience. However, is there a best time to send direct mail, or best day of week/month/season?

There isn’t one definitive best time to send direct mail. There are several variables that can impact when mailing to a certain audience. For example, a tax-preparation company and a lawn care service would give different answers regarding when they’ve had the most success mailing.

Does Direct Mail Have a “Best” Time of Year?

No, there isn’t one best day, month, or season that is the best time to mail. What the best time to mail your mail piece is depends on when your offer is going to be the most relevant to the recipient and ensures that they have enough time to take the action that you’re wanting them to take.

Consider the Seasonality of Your Product or Service

Some businesses are obviously going to have more of a demand than others, and thus a best time to send direct mail. A business selling Christmas trees will generally experience less demand in June, whereas a lawn care business won’t have much demand during the colder parts of the year. Timing your direct mail campaign around when your product, service, or offer will be most relevant can give your recipients a better reason to respond.

Don’t wait until the very last minute to mail, as delays are able to occur at various stages of your campaign. Your design could take longer than expected, printing or lettershop preparation could encounter a delay, and some USPS mail classes don’t have a guaranteed delivery date.

Work Backward from Your Desired Response Date

Work backwards from your chosen delivery window so you can give yourself enough time for each stage of your campaign. Starting with a mail piece idea without considering when it needs to arrive could leave you without enough time for design, printing, postal preparation, and delivery. Plan your direct mail campaign early, so you don’t find yourself in a time crunch.

Consider the Expiration Date of Your Offer

If your offer on your mail piece has an expiration date attached to it, then you’ll obviously want to make sure that your mail piece has enough time to reach its target, as well as having enough time for the recipient to ponder and respond to your mail piece. At the same time, when considering when the best time to send direct mail is, you don’t want your recipient to receive the mail piece and forget about it. The key is to find a balance between arriving too early and too late, so your recipient a reasonable period of time to consider and respond to your offer.

Consider Holidays When Trying to Mail

When planning a campaign around a certain holiday, planning for some additional time needs to be done in order to find the best time to send direct mail. The USPS observes postal holidays, and some holiday periods also involve a high volume of mail. At the same time, holidays can create strong opportunities for businesses through holiday shopping, seasonal promotions, charitable giving/donating, fundraising, and other activities. To learn more about the USPS holiday volume of mail, read about that on their website here.

What Is Your Customer’s Buying Cycle?

Different products and services are going to have different purchasing cycles from one another, so this needs to be kept in mind when finding the best time to send direct mail. As an example, a customer might visit a coffee shop several times a month but might only need their carpets professionally cleaned once a year. Seasonal timing isn’t just mailing during a certain season; it also includes finding when your customer base is most likely to buy again and mailing at that moment to encourage business.

Prospecting and Customer Mailings Might Have Different Timing

Depending on the purpose of your campaign, there might be one best time to send direct mail that could be considered more optimal than another. For example, if you’re mailing to a prospective audience, that audience might need to be introduced to your company before they’re ready to buy, which could change when you mail to them. On the other hand, someone in a house file could already have familiarity with your business, which could affect the timing and messaging used for your campaign.

Use Your Previous Campaign Results

If you’ve conducted similar types of campaigns in the past that are similar to the one you’re planning, then you could look at your previous results and when you mailed to get a better idea of timing for your current campaign. Using test results such as this can help you build long-term direct mail success. Keep in mind that your mail timing might not have been the only variable that changed from one campaign to the next, so your historical results should provide context rather than definitive proof that one mailing period is superior to another.

What Is the Best Day of the Week to Send Direct Mail?

There isn’t one day of the week that is universally better than another for handing off your mail pieces to the USPS. What the appropriate mailing date is depends on several factors, including your audience, offer, campaign objective, mail class, destination, and desired window of response.

FAQ

Q: What’s the best month to send out direct mail?
- A: There isn’t one month that is the “best” to launch your campaign. You should consider what the demand is for your product or service is, as well as when your mail piece’s recipient is most likely to find your offer relevant. Work backwards from that desired window of arrival, and plan enough time for production, postal preparation, and delivery.
Q: Should I send my direct mail piece out before a seasonal peak or during holidays?
- A: It depends on your campaign. In many cases, you’ll want recipients to receive your mail before or around the time your offer becomes most relevant.
Q: Does the USPS have a guarantee that mail will arrive on a certain date?
- A: It depends on the mail class and service that is being used for delivery. USPS Marketing Mail, which is commonly used for commercial direct mail campaigns, doesn’t have a guaranteed delivery time. It’s best to have realistic expectations with delivery.
Q: How can I determine what the best time to mail is for my own campaign?
- A: Reviewing your results from comparable previous campaigns can help you to identify timing patterns that are worth investigating. Track when you’ve mailed, when responses occurred, and how your campaigns have performed alongside other variables, such as your audience and offer.

Conclusion

While the best time to mail depends on variables such as your audience, product or service, offer, campaign objective, when you want your recipients to respond, and more, you should plan on mailing when your offer will be the most relevant. Plan your campaign around when you want your mail piece to arrive, and work backwards from that date. By tracking your campaign’s timing regarding how often you should mail to your audience alongside your results, you can build historical data to help make better-informed decisions regarding when to mail future campaigns.

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