Let's face it, direct mailings don't perform well without fail. In any case, how might you know without a doubt that your mailing endeavors didn't work? Is a battle that didn't hit the normal reaction rate a total disappointment?
When you aren't sure, contrast your outcomes and industry benchmarks, other promoting devices, with your past crusades, and with your opposition if there is accessible information.
Generally, the reaction pace of regular postal mail has been decreased over the previous years. As indicated by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) in 2017, standard mail got a 5.1% reaction rate for house records and 2.9% for prospect records.
Shouldn't something be said about other advertising stages, would they say they are performing better? To decide the reaction rates for advanced advertising, messages, for instance, the DMA tracks the "navigate" rates and looks at them to the crusade's transformation rates. By looking at these two figures, it is anything but difficult to decide the general achievement and impact of an advanced advertising effort. For house records, notwithstanding, the numbers demonstrate that reaction rates for email is no higher than 0.6%. Do you feel diminished?
The average response rate for a prospect list can raise to 2.9% if:
- You are renting a frequently updated mailing list, rather than an internally kept house list).
- You are promoting a free offer rather than a price based offer, which typically lowers response rates. Free offers are important for lead generation campaigns because you will get responses from those who are interested in your specific products.
So, if you didn’t hit the benchmark, there can be a variety of reasons why your campaign underperformed. Let’s take a look at the important things to analyze when conducting a mailing campaign.
TRACKING YOUR PERFORMANCE
If your past campaigns leave you with only an “A for effort”, make sure that from the beginning you have put in place an effective tracking system when sending the next campaign. A tracking system will help you to gather all sorts of information, such as the number of:
- visitors on custom landing pages
- phone calls
- orders
- email addresses captured
- redeemed coupons or
- scanned QR codes, etc.
Understanding where your potential clients are contacting you from is vital for your direct mailing success. Tracking each point of contact i.e. the phone number, URL, coupon code, etc. is an efficient way to gauge how successful your mailing is.
Rule number one when setting up a tracking system is to make sure that any point of contact listed on your direct mail piece is unique and trackable.
TESTING YOUR PERFORMANCE
Our second methodology for pinnacle mailing execution is trying.
While testing can be a disturbance to the individuals who are simply exploring different avenues regarding standard mail, genuine and long haul direct advertisers comprehend that testing is a procedure that ought to be done all the time.
Testing can responds to every one of your inquiries concerning each part of your showcasing when choosing which offers, advertisement duplicates, and motivations acquire a higher reaction rate. Through testing various advancements, you'll have the option to improve reaction, just as improve learning of client contrasts and inclinations.
Finally, testing can approve your business impulses or refute it which is the reason it's so significant.
Methods of testing direct mail campaigns include:
- A/B Split Test is the most common type of testing. It involves testing the exact same direct mail package with two separate versions – versions A and B.
- Multivariable Test: this test involves, you guessed it, testing multiple elements at one time. This could include something like testing 3 lists and 2 offers or even multiple formats all within the same mail campaign.
It’s important to remember that testing helps you prepare for success, mitigate risks and estimate your business’ level of investment. Testing also helps you find your best marketing approach, thus improving your direct mail campaigns performance.
CONCLUSION
There are many variables that play into the success of your direct mail campaign. But the most effective and useful things to do in order to increase your response rate are:
- making sure your list is up to date
- have a compelling offer
- test your mailing variables on a regular basis
- attempt to optimize your results with any variation of the aforementioned ideas
Remember, to get the best results you must treat your direct mail as an experiment which means careful planning and analysis of all potential variables to maximize returns.
For more information visit: https://accurateaz.com/2018/10/direct-mail-campaigns-underperform/
