The
simplest and most immediate measure of a direct marketing campaign for your business is the
response level that it achieves. Many different factors can affect these rates,
so it is important to test all the variables before committing all your
resources to this particular approach. Also keep in mind that you must aim for
a realistic figure that is within your budget.
Remember
that your response rates will be greater when you define your target market as
precisely as possible. In addition, you want to make it easy for your prospects
to respond.
If you
want to maximize your effectiveness with a campaign to sell, follow the guidelines:
Test before Implementing
Before
doing anything, you must test direct mail on a small proportion of the market.
Although this is a precise medium, testing can refine the process even further.
With so many variables in a campaign, you can test different elements
individually and plan on the basis of the best response rate. The most
effective will be the one that achieves the highest response levels for your business.
Response and Sales Can Measure Effectiveness
An
increase in profitable sales stands as the ultimate test of any marketing
campaign. However, direct mail, by itself, cannot deliver. Many factors
such as pricing, product quality, sales representatives, customer service, and
competitive activities will have an influence on how well you do. You must have
a specific role for what you’re going to initiate as well as measure by how it
will be fulfilled so that you can sell.
Set in Motion
Remember
that the response levels that you target will depend on whether you integrate
other forms of marketing communication with your direct mail campaign or not.
For
example:
- Response levels as low as 1 or
2 % are regarded as the industry norm;
- Response rates in the region
of 5% are regarded as high;
- Response rates in the region
of 10-20% have been reported by companies who have integrated other forms
of marketing communications.
Keep Your Aim Narrow
A direct
mail campaign for your business can either aim at one key decision maker or thousands of
potential users. Since what you’re using is a precise medium, you will want
target specifically to achieve the best response rate that you can.
Integrate Other Marketing
Activities into the Campaign
Although,
you can run direct mail campaigns at will if you want; performance, overall
awareness and levels among customers and prospects will improve considerably if
you integrate with other marketing activities such as an exhibition,
advertising campaigns, or sales force calls.
Allow Your Prospects Easy Response Access
Response
rates will always improve if you make yourself easily available for contact
such as with websites, email addresses, postage-paid envelopes and 800 numbers.
Make sure that you monitor the response levels from different sources to find
most effective.