Posted by Brian Berg Google+
Many businesses mailing for the time neglect to make a strong and relevant offer. They invest heavily in the creative design, print, mail and mailing list only to conclude that direct marketing doesn’t work for them. Outside of targeted mailing list, the campaign strategy likely lacked an offer strong enough to generate measurable response. Whether it be a postal direct mail or email campaign, your message must be interesting enough to catch the eye of your audience. Without these key ingredients, you're likely to conclude that direct marketing doesn't work.
Real Life Example
Here’s a perfect example of a direct marketing campaign that BB Direct recently deployed to its customer and prospect email list. Under normal circumstances, our email campaigns generate predictable click-thru rates. Whether the campaign is a notice of something important and informative or an offer that’s relevant and attractive to our customers, BB Direct will typically see between a 2% to 5% click through rate.
One of most recent email campaigns (you may have seen it) was a notice about a deadline for applying for a substantial discount in postage during the summer months thru the USPS. This is a postal discount campaign the US Postal Service is running to step up Standard Rate usage during the summer months. We detailed the criteria for this program in our blog and deployed an email to everyone we knew.
The results were significantly better than anything we’ve ever done. We saw an 11% open rate for this campaign and a whopping 10% click-thru rate of the total number of delivered emails. What is so significant about these numbers was the fact that we’ve have good historical response rate data over the past 2 years to this exact same audience. This campaign outshined everything we’ve ever done in the past. Why? Simply because of all the message/offers we’ve ever put in front of this audience, this offer had a greater appeal to more people than any other. It stands to reason, all mailers, whether postal or otherwise, should seriously question the offer and message they are sending.
If you’re going to make an offer, make it strong enough to grab the attention of your prospects. They are listening and will respond.
Need help? Give us a call at 866-501-6273 or visit us at www.bbdirect.com.