631.694.1500
MailWays
A free newsletter offering direct mail marketing tips from
Bi-County Mailing & American Mail Communications
August 2007
Copyright © 2007
888-MAIL-888
IN THIS ISSUE
- Test & Save $$$
- One Word = Big Difference
- DM Keeps Growing
- Get Them To Act NOW!
- Press Box
- Our Favorite Charities
- How Are We Doing?
- Hold That Thought
The Press Box
Find out what's new at:
LaMantia Gallery
Get FREE publicity for your company/organization.
Send us news about your events, promotions, awards, important changes, achievements, etc. We will post the information on our website through a link in this space. Email your information
in a Word document
to Phyllis Abrams at filisa@optonline.net.
Be sure to put
“Bi-County Press Box”
in the subject field.
Deadline: the 15th of each month. This FREE service is only for clients. Space is limited. We will make every effort to accommodate all submissions. Posting will be at the sole discretion of the publisher.
Go to www.americanmail.com & www.bicountymailing.com
Click on “Our Favorite Charities”...
It's our way of supporting good people
who do good things.
Every little bit helps.
Please visit their sites.
They could use your support!
How Are We Doing?
Check out our clients' testimonials on www.americanmail.com
About Us - Direct Mail References page. We've included their company logos, as well as links to their websites when possible.
If you're a client, and would like to be listed on our testimonial page with your logo and a link to your website, tell us how we've helped you improve your business, email
HOLD THAT THOUGHT...
The better job you do of asking: “What could go wrong?” ...the less often you’ll have to say: “Something has gone wrong and we need to fix it.”
Denise Robitaille
Quality Improvement Consultant
Test Your Mailing & Save Your $$$
Doing a test run before you roll out a full-scale direct mail campaign can save you a lot of money and grief. Direct mail is a unique marketing tool because you can do just that without blowing your budget, learning what works and what doesn’t – about your mailing list, package/format, offer, copy, graphics, price and timing.
Here’s a checklist that may help you decide what to test when:
Test #1: Mailing List - Send the same package to a portion of two lists, then launch your entire campaign to the list that generates more responses. Remember to code your response mechanisms so you can determine which list brings in more responses.
Test #2: Package/Format - Change your package entirely and send it to your most responsive list. For example, after mailing your package in an envelope, try sending a self mailer to the same group and track results.
Test #3: Offer – Keeping the same format and list change only the offer.
Test #4: Price - Change only the price and send it to the same list.
Test #5: Copy - Completely change your copy – not the offer, list or price.
Test #6: Timing - Try mailing the same package to the same list at different times of the year.
Note: Marketing experts advise mailing at least three times to the same name before dropping it from your list.
Case Study: One Word Boosts Response
A software company’s standard offer was a “30-day free trial” of its product. At the end of that period, prospects could return the product and pay nothing, or keep the software and be invoiced by the firm.
By changing only one word and mailing to the same list, response increased substantially. They simply changed “30-day free trial” to “30-day free use,” reasoning that people buy a product to use it, so who wouldn’t want to “use” it for “free?” They were right.
They achieved another boost in response by changing “30-day free use” to “60-day free use.” It seems the 30-day period was not enough time for busy data processing professionals to evaluate the product. Sixty days gave them time to take a good look at the company’s software. Right again.
Source: Business to Business Direct Marketing by Robert W. Bly
Direct Mail Keeps Growing & Is More Effective than Ever
- Universal McCann predicts that direct mail will grow 7.5 percent this year to $64.4 billion, despite the continued expansion of electronic marketing.
- InfoTrends recently published a study revealing that 61 percent of consumers surveyed preferred receiving information by mail – nearly triple the number that preferred email ads.
- The Direct Marketing Association’s recent study revealed that return on investment on direct mail lead generation is rising while ROI for Internet lead generation is trending down because of spam.
- With improved ability to target and personalize mailing lists, marketing
experts report that mailings are reaching their intended
audiences and, therefore, response rates are increasing. Direct mail,
a minimally invasive communications tool, is especially effective at
driving prospects to call or visit a Web site.
- More marketers are turning to mailing specialists so they can stay on top of postal trends and regulations in order to save money and achieve the greatest postal discounts.
Motivate Your Prospect to ACT NOW!
With so many daily distractions competing for attention, it’s more challenging than ever to get clients/prospects to take immediate action and respond to a mailing instantly.
Here are some tips on how to give your call to action an edge:
- Let your recipient know that failure to act now will cause them to miss out on the important benefits your product/service has to offer. Stress that it’s in their best interest to respond NOW to obtain something that will improve their lives/business.
- Give your audience clear, concise, easy-to-follow instructions about what they should do NOW – as soon as they finish reading your material.
- Don’t be vague or subtle, don’t “hope” or “suggest” that
they respond. Be direct and tell them to call NOW or jump
online.
- Give them a deadline and special gift if they act NOW. Marketing gurus say that creating urgency can boost response rates 10 to 25 percent.
Our mission is to make your use of direct mail correct, efficient, effective and as hassle-free as possible. In every way possible, we will operate as an extension of your company or organization
with your needs and goals as our paramount responsibility.