How FMCG Improved Direct Mail Results Across Three Financial Products

The Hypothesis: Better Data, Better Direct Mail

FMCG, a Deluxe Company, is the leading provider of direct mail marketing for financial institutions. Their clients — banks, credit unions, and financial services companies — rely on FMCG to deliver campaigns that drive merchant services adoption, business lending applications, and business banking signups.

FMCG already used a variety of foundational and well-known SMB data sources. But they had a hypothesis: they could boost campaign ROI by more precisely segmenting and targeting businesses based on revenues and processing volumes.

The logic was sound. A business with $2 million in annual card processing volume is a fundamentally different prospect for merchant services than one doing $50,000. A business showing steady revenue growth presents a different lending opportunity than one in decline. But traditional data providers couldn’t deliver this granularity.

The A/B Test: Enigma vs. Traditional Providers

FMCG designed a rigorous test. They ran A/B campaigns comparing targeting approaches:

• Test Group: Campaigns using Enigma’s data about revenues and processing volumes for audience segmentation
• Control Group: Campaigns targeted solely based on data from traditional providers

The test covered three distinct financial products to ensure results weren’t product-specific:

1. Merchant Services — payment processing solutions for SMBs
2. Business Lending — credit and loan products for small businesses
3. Business Banking — deposit and account products for business customers

Each product category represents a different buyer journey and decision framework, making them a comprehensive test of data quality impact on campaign performance.

The Results: Significant Improvement Across All Three Products

The A/B test results were clear: Enigma’s revenue and processing volume data delivered significant improvement across all three financial product categories.

Why Revenue Data Improves Direct Mail

Direct mail is expensive per impression compared to digital channels. This high unit cost makes targeting precision disproportionately valuable. Sending a merchant services offer to a business doing $500,000 in annual card processing is qualitatively different from sending it to one doing $5,000.

Enigma’s data allowed FMCG to match the right financial product to the right business based on actual economic signals — not just firmographic proxies.

Key Takeaways

1. Revenue data improves targeting across product categories. The lift wasn’t specific to one financial product — it applied consistently across merchant services, lending, and banking.

2. A/B testing validates data quality claims. Rather than relying on vendor promises, FMCG ran a controlled experiment. The results spoke for themselves.

3. Processing volume signals matter for merchant services. Knowing a business’s actual card processing volume is the single most relevant targeting signal for merchant services acquisition.

Technical Specifications