How To Measure The Impact Of Direct Mail Campaigns
March 29th, 2010 | Author: admin
How To Measure The Impact Of Direct Mail Campaigns
It appears to be a common trend nowadays to say that direct mail campaigns are dead. The development of the Internet has certainly left many more avenues of marketing open but those who suggest direct mailing is dead simply are not implementing their campaign efficiently.
Direct mail campaigns are all about trial and error. Try something measure the impact if it doesn’t work try something else next time. You need to work out the best ways to reach your target market and the best way to gain a response. Having worked in a company which bases itself upon direct mail campaigns there are a number of options available.
The first and perhaps most important item to remember is control. For every mailing campaign there also needs to be a control group i.e. customers that do not receive the mail. It is then quite easy to measure whether or not the mailing is having an impact or if those who did not receive a mailing are responding anyway. By comparing the two groups it is relatively straightforward to see whether the mailing campaign has produced any significant effect on your profit margins. For example the group who were mailed may have showed no noteworthy increase in spend compared to the control group meaning that the campaign will need to be thought through.
Secondly direct mailing campaigns need to be tracked on a month by month basis. For example if a customer is part of your campaign in January and showed an increased spend because of this how much are they still spending in October? Does your mailing campaign have longevity. Between these times it is more than likely that you would have launched further campaigns which have temporarily increased spend again. It is vital that customers are constantly made to be aware of your company. This to not to say that they need to be bombarded with mail but simply be kept uptodate with special offers or big news from your industry. The more they see your name the more likely they are to recall it when they do need something.
Thirdly all customers who are to be included in your campaign need to be split up into adequate groups. It is quite unlikely that you will want to send the same sort of mailing to someone who spent with you last month and someone who spent a year ago for example. Perhaps you will want to send those who haven’t spent for a year some kind of offer like 10 off whereas those who spent recently don’t require an offer but just the latest products on offer.
Naturally all customers like to receive discounts and these can differ depending on your company. You could offer a percentage off a monetary value free delivery of goods or a free gift for example.
Another good idea is to target specific postal areas. You could try saturating a postal area a little further away from the company base who have possibly not heard of the company before. If this is successful you can then perhaps try other areas. There are also a number of companies who can produce lists of certain demographics which are available for purchase. For example if you are a wholesaler of ironmongery you might want a list of all construction firms within 100 miles of you. These lists will take you instantly to your target market.
An obvious way to measure the success of campaigns is to ask the customers. Wherever possible ask them how they heard about the company. Get them to fill in feedback forms saying what they believe to be both positive and negative about the company. They will soon let you know if they don’t like to be mailed!
These are the basic ideas to any direct mailing campaign but the best way to learn is through experience. The more campaigns you run the more proficient you will become and the better results will follow.
For further articles like this please visit my website. Click my name at the top of this page
About the writer: I’m a 24 year old University graduate in Business Management with Marketing and PsychoSocial Studies. I write articles in my spare time on numerous subjects many based around my areas of expertise which are Computing Business Marketing and Current Events. Please visit my website at http://thechapview.blogspot.com
Related posts:
Posted in Advertising