Don’t let your stamps and effort go to waste! If you’re not measuring metrics and variables in your marketing campaign, you’re setting yourself up for a long learning curve and future failure. To maximize a direct mail campaign, you must have laser focus, but the only way to get there is through the systems you create.
Here are some tips in squeezing every potential client out of a list. It’s not exhaustive, but it will help you get started. Remember these rules:
1 List = 1 Campaign
If you have more than 1 list, the worst thing you could do is combine any or all of them, even if it makes mailing easier. Its near impossible to measure the effort to obtain a specific client accurately. Was this person on a previous list and received 5 more mailings than the others? When I combined the lists did this person get double mailed? How many times? What marketing piece?
If you have a larger list and want to measure different variables, split the list. Just be sure you identify your smaller campaign with its parent list. Whatever you do, do not mix.
Make Tracking Easy
Tracking can be very precise, this also means lots of time and effort. If this is your first campaign, make things easy. I would start by tracking 2 variables per campaign. A variable is something that can change or be easily adjusted within a campaign. For instance, postcards can have multiple variables:
- 4×6 or 6×9
- B&W or 4/4 color
- Handwritten, print, or both
- Glossy or matte
- Cartoons or text
If you run a campaign with mixed media (postcards, flyer, letter, etc.) some of the variables remain the same, but every item in your marketing campaign can have hundreds of variables. I suggest starting with a blanket comparison (use examples given) and working from there.
You get tracking results from asking your prospective clients or tracking website activity. Either way, its regular people who give you those gold nuggets, so keep them in mind and make it simple.
Focus Your Target
Take this next rule as your crash course in target practice. Only market 1 item or service at a time. This is an unbreakable rule in direct mail, period.
If you are in the note business, your targets are note holders. “Duh!” I hear you saying, but wait a second. If you buy a list of note holders, why are you marketing them lottery services? “But I market my broker services, too!” You’re saying now. That is probably the case. So many new brokers fall into this trap. Unfortunately, some of the study courses they buy make them this way. I’ll give the courses the benefit of the doubt and say they do it unknowingly, but in either case stop.
The solution: create separate campaigns for other services you wish to advertise, or drop them altogether and get good great at brokering.
Campaign Life
No campaign should run indefinitely; it’s counter-productive. I’m not saying throw away your list, however, use the information you worked so hard for to better focus that and future lists.
To determine how long to run a campaign, you must first know that it takes 7-9 impressions to make a prospect into a client. Keeping that in mind, estimate the number of mailings you will need to make these impressions. If your client lives in a lively city like New York, you will need more mailings to make those impressions than say a client that lives in a rural city. If you have a mixed list, take a stab in the dark, but remember more is better.
Once you have your “impression number”, determine how often your client will receive mail (measure by weeks) and multiply this by your impression number.
Impression Number X Mail Frequency (wks) = Campaign Life
For example: You think 12 mailings will make your 7-9 impressions and you want to mail every 6-8 weeks. Your campaign life is 72-96 weeks.
Response Rate
Nothing much in the initial stage of a campaign in regards to response rate. Shoot for the industry average of 3%. Anything more measure heavily- you may have figured something out.
A Scenario
You have a list of 600 names. You want to know optimum postcard response in regards to card type and content. You make 2 campaigns, each 300 names each.
Campaign #1 has the following:
- 150 names/150 names
- 4×6 in. postcards (both)
- Matte postcard (150) vs. Glossy postcard (150)
- No Cartoon (150) vs. Cartoon (150)
- 4/4 color (both)
- 6-week mail cycle (both)
- Advertising 1 service & free consultation (both)
Campaign #2 or the other half of the list (300) can have totally different variables, or can serve as the control (this means you mail these as you would regularly, no special stuff).
If you follow the example, I would recommend having the matte card with no cartoon and the shiny with, or vice versa. This way when someone calls you and you ask if the postcard they got had a cartoon, you automatically know which group its from (matte or gloss) by their answer. You don’t have to pester them any more and can get down to business.
Put It All Together
Compile this information and start your own campaign. You don’t need a new list, but it will give you more accurate numbers. Begin with a purpose- it can be as specific or vague as you like. Keep in mind people forget advertisements they see within 2 weeks. Using these techniques will help future direct mail efforts. They will save you marketing dollars and help your business run more efficiently.
