In the last post, we mentioned that direct mail (when it’s done correctly) can be a profitable tool that you use again and again, year after year. But, to make it into a valuable part of your marketing effort, you have to pair the right message with the right list of potential customers.
Once you reach that point, it can be easy to rely on the same pieces and customer profiles for years to come. That’s not necessarily a bad idea, but what if your campaign could turn out to be a lot more profitable than it is already?
Because of that possibility, the best idea is to use your existing campaign as a “control” that you can test other pieces and ideas against. In other words, because you know that it shows consistent returns (let’s say a 2% response rate, for example), you can keep devoting most of your resources with the same package and type of customer while using 10 or 20% of your mailings trying to beat that response rate and go even higher.
What happens if you do come up with a better direct mail campaign that achieves higher returns? You guessed it: It becomes your new control, and you start the whole process all over again. You’re not likely to ever achieve 100% returns on any mailing, but that should always be the target you’re moving towards.
In the next post, we will examine one more missing piece to direct mail that a lot of marketers miss.
Call Marcy Design, a Columbus Ohio website design company to help with your web, marketing and advertising campaigns.
