Q: What would be considered a successful return in sales, by percentage, for a marketing mailshot?
Aug 14 2007
Answered by: Jackie Jarvis Ask a question
With all the mail that falls on most peoples door mat in the morning there is a lot for any mailshot, letter or flyer to compete with. Most mail shots these days generate as little as a 1% return. If the direct mail piece is not compelling for the receiver then the chances are it will get put in the bin immediately. Sad but true.
Direct mail can be a huge waste of time and money if you don’t go about it in the right way. Sending out thousands of poorly targeted and poorly written mailshots is a bit like tipping a big bag of £5.00 notes down the drain. The sending of it does not guarantee a result.
Here are some tips on how to get the best result from your direct mail
• Make sure that you send your direct mail to the right people. The key is to have the right mailing list to start with. You have the best chance of getting a response from people who have purchased something similar to what you are selling, people who have money to spend and belong to a group or organisation that have a strong want or need for your product or service. You can purchase mailing lists from list brokers who can help you to identify good lists for your direct mail campaigns.
• Sending a mailing to highly targeted prospects will raise your chance of success. If you are a landscape gardener and you send a mailing to owners of properties with large gardens in areas where there is disposable income, you will have a much better chance of a good response than you would sending it out to a housing estate no gardens.
• Make sure that your direct mail follows the AIDCA formula described in the chapter in my book about designing adverts that sell.
• Use attention grabbers to get people to open it. Be creative and consider something a bit different or unusual that receivers can touch and feel.
• Personalise it if you can.
• Make your mailing look like a letter from a friend by printing your address labels in script or similar and avoiding colourful messages on the outside, which make it obvious that it is direct mail. The less obvious the better.
• Sequential mailing campaigns get a better response than one-off mailings as doing this well means that you are able to build a relationship with buyers over time.
• If you follow up a direct mailing with a telephone call you can increase your response rate by 50 – 100%.
• Don't send out more than you have the resource to follow up, as this, needs to be done within a few days of sending the mail shot.
• Another useful trick to getting a better return from your mail shot is to be selective about where you distribute it, and test small batches by hand delivering in the evenings
• You can introduce your mail by voice broadcast over the telephone or by telemarketing. This can help to set up an expectation for it. Some organisations which send competitions in the post as a way of attracting potential customers use this method.
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