Testing 1,2,3
by Andrew Shedden
Despite the fact we are living in an increasingly technological world, direct mail remains an excellent and effective way for businesses to attract more prospects. For small to mid-sized businesses the single biggest challenge remains creating effective direct mail packages without bankrupting their companies in the process. To create a successful direct mail campaign you need an inexpensive and reliable method of compiling valuable marketing data for your company.
I am frequently asked how to create effective direct mail packages without having to spend $100,000 on market research and focus groups. I’m afraid the answer isn’t magical, in fact it’s rather methodical. To optimize your direct mail packages you merely need to do two things.
Ask your target market what they want.
Give it to them.
Obtain your test list
The first thing you need to do is rent a list big enough to be a representative sample of your target market. Generally speaking, rental lists are available with 2,500 + names minimum. Although your list broker will likely have a minimum charge policy to discourage small list purchases it’s still an excellent investment on your part. If you are running a small to medium sized business you should select a minimum of 500 names at random from your proposed mailing list.
Determine what you want to test
There is nearly no end to what you can test in direct mail. Some companies will go so far as to test the type of postage stamp they use. The primary areas you need to test in your direct mail package are the creative concepts and the offer.
Test creative concepts
Remember that the most wonderful offer imaginable is worthless if you can’t get your prospects to open the envelope or read the self-mailer. I would suggest testing a minimum of three creative concepts in your package. If you can afford to it would be better for you to test six creative concepts. One key point is that positive benefits-laden creative concepts always outpull problem focused creative work. Prospects are very well aware of their problems, and these problems need no emphasis.
Optimize your offer
After the list choice, your offer is the second most important aspect of your direct mail package. Test the headline and content of all of your offers. Test one time versus two step offers. Test how many respondents would opt to meet you immediately versus how many would rather receive a free information package. Test a variety of offers and have your prospects rank them in order of preference. Let the market tell you exactly what they want and then give it to them.
Assemble your survey
When putting your survey together you need to ensure it is unbiased and that you are receiving relevant and useable data. If, for example, you are trying to determine the optimal selling price point of a Dodge Viper and you ask the respondents if they would rather be paying $10,000 or $50,000 per car you’ll be receiving a blinding glimpse of the obvious.
Make sure respondents are asked to rank all creative concepts and offers in order of preference. This will give you much more accurate data and help you to identify common themes and trends in your target industries.
I also suggest including at least one open-ended essay style question to add to the survey value. You’ll be very surprised what these questions can reveal about the real needs of your target market. In many cases these types of questions reveal that companies have stressed the wrong benefits in their marketing and selling activities.
Incentivize your survey
The last point in this quick overview is to be sure to incentivize your survey. You need to really think about costs versus benefits. If you mail out 500 surveys and get a 10% response you will have 50 companies providing your company with invaluable data. The way I look at it is this: if, as a result of information gathered through your survey your response rate increases by 1% what is that increase worth to your company? Is each response worth $1, or $10, or even more?
Create inexpensive sample packages
When you’re having your creative concepts put together be sure to have the hard copy provided to you as inexpensively as possible. Once the creative concepts are put together have them printed at your local quick print shop on a high quality digital press or colour copier.
Send it out and compile your results
You can expect a 10% to 40% response rate to your survey depending on the list, the survey, and the incentive that you decide to use. Compile your results, rework your creative concepts and your offer, and you’re off to the races. You can roll out your direct mail promotion with great confidence secure in the knowledge that you’ve done your homework.
Oh, one other thing
You can do all of this much more inexpensively online.
