The Copywriter Online

If we could show you how to increase the response rate of your direct mail would you be interested?

What’s more, should you be interested?

In the direct mail industry “response rates” are the traditional way in which the success or failure of a campaign is measured, but it can be misleading. This is best illustrated with an example. A local car yard does a mail out for its end of year clearance and offers a “lucky door prize” of $2000 cash. Each letter is numbered and if you are present at the time of the draw you could win.

Response rate vs Conversions, Cost & Sale Value

Such a letter could get a great response rate – after all you only have to turn up at the time of the prize draw to have a chance to win. What’s more, how many people are likely to be there at that time? Possibly a few hundred. Even if it’s a couple of thousand, those are better odds than a lottery. What happens is that people who have no intention of buying will come for the prize draw. There may be a great response rate, but what was the conversion rate? And what was the average cost per sale? And the average value per sale?

So what is important?

First of all direct mail is more than just an offer and a list. Great care and preparation are needed to identify the target for the letter. The list needs to be accurate and up-to-date and the offer needs to be one that appeals to the target audience.  You need to work out what sort of response you need and how to screen out the tyre-kickers! Then you can design your response mechanism. And don’t forget the need to follow them up. Many companies get responses to their direct mail and then don’t follow through.

To take the guess work out of your next direct mail campaign contact The Copywriter Online.