Dictionary of Marketing Terms: mail count
mail count
quantity of mail received by a direct-mail marketer on a daily basis. Mail count is determined by weighing batches of mail, counting letter trays of mail, or counting individual pieces by key code. Mail counts are usually done on new-business promotions but not on other types of mail such as payments or customer complaints, for which postprocessing reports are adequate. The counts are used to project total response to a promotion and may also be the basis for a decision to send out another mailing. The time, money, and effort spent on planning a promotion create a level of anxiety that is soothed by these quick counts, but they are not as accurate as the counts available one to five days later as output from the order entry system.
