Category Archives: Direct Mail Testing

If Your Direct Mail Campaign Fails

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Sometimes, even the best-laid direct mail marketing campaigns can fall flat. But wait—were they really that well-laid? If your direct mail efforts haven’t been getting the returns you want, here’s how to start figuring out where it went wrong:

  1. Wrong list. Your direct mail success starts and ends with the strength of your mailing list. Without a good mailing list, the most brilliant campaign in the world is doomed to failure. Maybe you purchased a list that hadn’t been properly cleaned and wasted time sending to people not at that address. Maybe you simply targeted the wrong group of people or cast too wide or too narrow a net. Whatever happened, you didn’t get your message in the hands of the right people.
  2. Right list, wrong message. On the other hand, maybe you mailed to a carefully chosen list of demographically and psychographically attractive prospects and scrubbed that list with the greatest care and you’re still hearing crickets. In that case, you need to consider that you sent the wrong message to the right people. When you were selecting those likely prospects, did you stop and consider what really matters to them? Did you focus on stability and security for Baby Boomers? Did you not give enough information about your new insurance program? There was some disconnect in your messaging between the people you wanted to reach and the way you reached them. Back to the drawing board.
  3. Wrong time. Maybe your message was exactly right and delivered to precisely the right people—at just the wrong moment. Maybe you were pitching mortgages just after the 2008 housing meltdown or maybe you were trying to sell snow shovels in July. You miscalculated the timing, either because of the calendar or because of external events, and as a result, your mailing was ignored.
  4. No call to action. Maybe the message was all right, delivered to your exquisitely clean list at the perfect moment. People looked at your letter or postcard with rhapsodic joy…and put it aside because it didn’t tell them what to do next. You didn’t give them a clue about what they were supposed to buy, who they were supposed to call or why they were supposed to care. It doesn’t matter how right the rest of the pieces of your campaign are if no one understands how they’re supposed to respond.

The good thing about all these problems is that they’re solvable. All it takes is a slight adjustment of strategy, a little change in the way you approach direct mail marketing, and you’re back in business. Need help finding out what went wrong with your marketing? Contact Premier Advantage Marketing, a direct marketing agency. We’ll help you untangle it all and make sure every part of your marketing is working together in perfect accord. 

Direct Mail Testing vs. Research

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We’ve talked on this blog before about the importance of testing. Testing in direct mail is the process of sending out multiple versions of a mailer before you send it to your list at large. By gauging the response to different offers or designs, you’re better able to understand which version is going to let you get the biggest bang for your buck when you send it to your whole list. This is a critical step you cannot skip in your direct mail campaign.

But there’s an equally important and less formal process that can help you boost your ROI: research. Think of it this way: testing tells you what happened. This worked, this didn’t. But research tells you why something happened. It might tell you that customers aren’t interested in the offer, or that they thought the mailer didn’t stand out in the clutter of their mailbox. It might tell you that they hated the picture you used or that they didn’t understand how they were supposed to contact you. Research gives you the specific information you need to make changes that will lead to success.

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FAQ: What Results Can I Expect on Direct Mail?

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This is by far the most common question we receive. “What kind of ROI will I get on my direct mail campaign?” We wish we had a specific, one-size-fits-all answer. We wish we could say that every direct mail campaign gets a 0.1% return rate or that our customers double their money. But the bottom line is, the only direct mail results that matter are yours.

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Are You Testing Your Direct Mail?

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The most important part of direct mail marketing is probably the step you skip. After all, you’ve spent all this time and money using database marketing to target the right customers, designed a beautiful mailer with punchy copy and a measurable call to action. You want to send it, and you want to send it now. To everyone. But hold your horses. You could be making a big, big mistake.

Testing is critical in every kind of marketing, but it’s especially important in direct mail. Sure, you spent a lot of money on that direct mail piece, but you aren’t going to save any if you send out a giant dud to your entire mailing list.

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Top 5 Mistakes Direct Mail Marketers Make

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Direct mail marketing is a science.  I have said it before and you will hear me say it again.  Much like baking a cake, there is a recipe for success.  Knowing what to do or specifically not do will make the achievement of that success all the more easier. The following is a list of the top 5 mistakes marketers make when executing a direct mail marketing campaign.

  1. Working with bad data. Whether you are targeting the wrong prospects or your list is outdated. Either way you are wasting your marketing dollars that could be spent elsewhere.  Scrub your house list. Make sure you are reaching those who need to see your message.  Model your prospects after your best customers since they are the most likely to exhibit some of the same traits as your future customers.
  2. Having a less than compelling offer.  Ask yourself “so what?”.  If you didn’t know about your company – would you care about what you are selling? Make it relevant to your customers needs.  If they don’t need it – whatever “it” is – then they are not likely to act upon your offer.
  3. Unknown call to action.  Did you forget to ask for the sale?  Did you make it easy for your prospect to do what you asked them to do?  If you want the prospect to scan a QR code – did you tell them how? Did you give them alternate means to contact you if they don’t have a smart phone? Is your phone number on your direct mail piece?
  4. Lack of testing.  The number 2 reason that direct mail marketing fails is a lack of testing.  The first reason it fails is because the list is not scrutinized well enough to target who needs to receive it.  Test. Test. And then test again.  Test your offer. Test your call to action. Test your text. Test your timing.  There are lots of variables you can test- just don’t test them all at the same time or you won’t know the motivating factor.
  5. Schedule your direct mail. While savvy marketers have their next quarter plans in place before the end of the quarter they are in, others struggle to maintain a flow of leads for the sales force.  What ends up happening is that the leads come in spurts.  In the sales world, it is referred to as feast or famine.  Sales persons are usually on commission and when the pipeline is not steadied, then the sales team is either too busy or not busy enough.

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  www.premieradvantagemarketing.comTom Emmerson, EzineArticles.com Basic PLUS Author

 

Testing a Direct Mail Marketing Campaign Can Prove to be Fruitful

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Testing a Direct Mail Marketing Campaign Can Prove to be Fruitful

Sometimes the most off the wall idea can prove to be the greatest direct mail marketing efforts.  Take for instance Reader’s Digest campaign in 1956 that involved mailing pennies to 50 million homes.  According to an article on Marketing Sherpa, “The magazine planned to send out 50 million letters, which meant they needed 100 million coins –enough to deplete the entire New York area of pennies. The U.S. Mint intervened, forcing Reader’s Digest to make quick arrangements to ship in 60 million more pennies from all over the country.  Then, when the company finally got all the pennies it needed, it stored them all in one room – and the floor collapsed under the weight.”

At first mention it might sound like a direct mail marketing failure in planning or even in execution.  It was however, one of the single most reasons attributed to the magazine’s circulation increasing from 4.5 million in 1948 to over 12 million in 1959, according to the New York Times. Testing an off-the-wall campaign proved effective.

Test, Test, and Test Again. As Albert Einstein once said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Following are general accepted guidelines of testing:

Have reasons to test: Know what you are looking to measure. Is it the copy? Is it the mail package type? Is it the response mechanism?

Who are you testing? Are you testing equal populations? Are the demographics and psycho-graphics similar enough to not equate the different response rates to a different clientele?

Testing sufficient quantities: The general rule of thumb for quantity to test is 10% of the mail list or 1000-5000 pieces.

Know the difference between features and benefits: Ask yourself “SO WHAT?” A feature is “this data management solution has an on-line reporting feature”. A benefit is that the marketer has real-time results to getting counts on the lists they want to market to.

Track and analyze the results: If you don’t track and measure the results, then you have no measure of its effectiveness.  If you don’t track and analyze, you won’t know what to change for the next mailing.

Always test: If you do not constantly test your mailing pieces, then you are missing out on valuable opportunities to learn. This learning can result in cutting costs over time and boosting your profits.  You should always be testing something with every mailing or you might be wasting valuable opportunities to learn and cut costs.

Testing a direct mail marketing campaign can prove to be fruitful. And according to George Bernard Shaw, “Wisdom is gained from experiencing varying situations and circumstances, while experience is gained from foolishness. This is the only way in which being foolish can prove to be fruitful.”

 www.premieradvantagemarketing.comTom Emmerson, EzineArticles.com Basic PLUS Author

 

Direct Mail Marketing is Making a Comeback

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Direct Mail Marketing is Making a Comeback

Direct mail marketing is making a comeback. It has been marked as the liveliest discussion on LinkedIn by Target Marketing a publication by North American Publishing Company.  Even Google is getting in on the direct mail marketing bandwagon as we received a direct mail piece from Google offering to try their Google Apps free for 30 days.

For those of us in the direct mail marketing world: A big thank you goes out to the malicious hackers and others who have broken into retail databases stealing personal and financial information from people and the news media covering it as well as they do.  Consumers already filter their emails. I personally have 3 that I discriminate who I give which email to based on how much business I do with that particular company. 

On line advertising is not doing much better with email marketing as consumers are openly complaining about ads appearing on such social sites as Facebook. Online ads, like any other marketing medium require serious planning and effort. It takes an in-depth understanding of how and where the ad will appear for it to be effective. It may be accessing personal information; however, it is a medium much like a billboard. No guarantee that the person online sees the advertisement.

Responsys, a company that tracks and analyzes the email marketing activity of more than 100 of the top retailers, says retailers sent each of their subscribers an average of 177 promotional emails in 2011.  This is overall an average of 16% over 2010 and 51% higher than was tracked in 2008. Just because the email is going out does not mean it is received well. In a survey conducted in 2011 by LoyaltyOne, 74% surveyed said that they did not believe that they received any benefit at all by providing personal information. If they aren’t sharing their email address and the online ads are not getting clicked on, then it will be direct mail that cuts through the marketing clutter.

Direct Mail can be completed in 4 Easy Steps:

  1. Start with an accurate lead list.
  2. Decide on a direct mail package (letter, postcard, self-mailer, dimensional)
  3. Draft the copy for the mailer. Make sure the call to action is clear and the response mechanism is easily actionable.
  4. Final approval, production, and mail.

Direct mail marketing is making a comeback because it is easy to use, reliable, trusted, private, and personal.