Making Direct Mail Work

 
 
  
 
 
 
 
  

First time

It went poorly: test

You should never mail your whole list with an untried mailing piece.  Instead mail just a few hundred addresses and see what sort of response you get.  But at the same time be aware of the response rate you need.

For example, if you make £50 from the average sale as a result of your promotion, and assuming it is costing you around £40 per 100 to send out a direct mail piece, it is obvious that one sale from 100 promotions is worthwhile.  Not very worthwhile, but ok.   So you are ok with 1% response rate, but happier with 1.5% or 2%.

Now do a trial mailing that will bring in enough sales (if successful) for you to measure your response rate.   Thus if you are looking for a 2% response rate you might mail 300 addresses in your trial mailing, while looking for 6 replies.   If you are looking for a 1% response rate it might be safer to mail 400 so you get 4 replies.

Always make your test random - don't try your local area - take a random sample from the whole list you wish to mail.

 

 

 

 

 
 
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