Smart marketers are realizing that cutting direct mail completely out of their marketing plans isn't the best strategy. Instead, they're taking a step back and making sure their direct mail is getting optimal results.
Here are five points marketers should remember to make their direct mail initiatives more effective.
- Review your outside list history for retests.
It may sound basic, but reviewing your history is one of the best ways to get lists back into the mix. Looking back two, three, five or even more years, we often will find lists that were left behind for some reason or another.
Typically, we'll see where lists were performing well and then they started to fall off only to be left out of future plans. Fatigue, changes in sources, changes in profit-and-loss ratios and lower merge percentages are typical reasons for lists being left out of future plans. If it's been a couple of years, the fatigue issue may be resolved; the other factors could be resolved by a simple phone call from your list broker to the respective list manager.
2. Take advantage of your strongest outside list opportunities.
In order to get the most out of lists, you must first understand list sources and what's contained in your core segments. For example, when referring to consumer publishing files, we often find that the direct-to-publisher source contains individuals who tend not to respond to direct mail campaigns such as partners, sponsors, Internet and telemarketing.
If a file/segment is working really well and you have a strong understanding of the file's make up, you can look for ways to expand. If you are taking a hotline, can you venture further back in recency? Can you expand to different sources? Can you take recent change of address names? Are inquirers available (in the case of buyer files)? Can you select expires or even cancels? Expanding on your core files is one of the top methods to increase your mailable universe.
3. Understand what you are mailing to your house names.
Many mailers have an extensive house file and although they likely have always played a role in direct mail campaigns, the current economy has let them to look for other ways to use their names. Perhaps the number one method is optimizing these names through the use of technology. Chances are, if someone has shown a serious interest in your product in the past, they may still have that interest and it's just a matter of finding the pocket of individuals who are most likely to respond today. A decent model will locate these individuals and open the doors to a potential goldmine.
4. Consider prospect model opportunities offered by outside list owners.
Most know that the number of new lists coming to the market is limited and when new lists do show themselves, they tend to be compiled or smaller files (where list owners are trying to capitalize on list rental income). However, this should not deter you from increasing use of outside lists. Although around for years, prospect models' effectiveness have improved due to the type of supporting data, the technology and the individuals building the models. Many list owners offer modeling to outside mailers and this is a great way to utilize lists you typically could not use with straight selects.
Cooperative databases have also proven to provide strong models for many mailers as they have many data points for each individual on their file. They know what "Susan Smith" at 123 XYZ Street has purchased over the past 12 months, the amount she's paid and how often she purchases. Although cooperative databases have been best known for their catalog data, they have made great strides over the past few years and are now successfully utilized by a number of marketing sectors such as publishing, continuity, and fundraising.
5. Find a way to take advantage of larger files with an affinity to your audience.
Lastly, mailers can take advantage of larger files they may not have been able to use in the past, often thanks to prospect models. Let's consider a mailer in the health book market as an example. The health mail universe contains millions of names and it's hard to distinguish and zero in on those most interested in receiving a book offer. For instance, there are a number of larger health newsletter master files. Although they are known readers, we may not know if these individuals are book buyers.
Jeremy Johnson is vice president of list brokerage at Specialists Marketing Services Inc.
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