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Welcome to the Talon Mailing & Marketing June 2007 Newsletter:
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Talon's Free Postage Rate Software With
The New Postal Rates is Available by Download.
Designed
and written by the Talon programming staff, this software is indispensable if
you plan mailings, need to know the latest postal regulations, or require
instant postage estimates.
To download a free copy click on this link:
Click here to download your free copy.
Direct Mail - The Deadly Sin
Of Not Testing.
by: Robert Wilkinson
If there's one thing that makes
direct mail a reliable method of drumming up new business, then that would
have to be the ability to test if a different version of a package can
achieve a better return on investment.
Having processed many mailings over the years, I can attest
that clients rarely take full advantage of this feature. In fact, more
often than not, clients don't test at all.
Not testing is commercial suicide. In today's competitive
climate, if there is anything that can be done to reduce the cost of
acquiring a customer, then it must be done. It's a no brainer. Research
shows that in times of depression, those that continue to advertise are
those that do well. It also shows that those that continue to advertise
also make efforts to stretch their budget even further.
You decrease your direct mail costs by application of a little commonsense
and by testing which offerings produce the best response. We'll take the
example of a direct mail package that comprises five parts in all.
The parts of the package are as follows:
1) Envelope
2) Personalized letter
3) Brochure
4) Leaflet/Order form
5) Business reply Envelope
Looking at this you would think that this it, but we've forgotten the most
important part of all:
6) The data
So, there's enough there now to get your message out.
Experience shows that the most important part of the mailing is the
data, so we must test this part. A badly produced but well targeted
letter will almost certainly produce a better return than a well written
badly targeted letter.
You may have a particular target audience already decided, for example,
lawyers. You will be able to get lists of lawyers from more than one
source, that can be tested. Equally you'll have the option of mailing to a
named individual, or to a job title, so you can test that too. So far
that's at least four permutations provided you use 2 data suppliers. It
would be 6 if you used 3 suppliers. If you hadn't narrowed your field to
one sector, then the choice of tests to run could be massively increased,
but it's not practical to take it to the extreme.
Targeting is everything, you must get that right, and you can only find
that out if you test.
Looking at the envelope, you have a huge number of choices here too. You
can send plain with a stamp, or printed with a message. You could make the
material from an unusual paper, print in full color, use different sizes.
You could print different designs, use different taglines and the like.
Depending on how your envelope is made you may be able to run multiple
designs for a minimal charge. The nature of some jobs is that they are
printed 2 or 3 or up on a sheet, so you will be able to produce equal
quantities of more than one design. Even if it's not free, chances are
that it won't be too expensive for a plate change.
For the letterhead, you can change the material. Studies by paper
merchants have shown a 20% increase in response just by changing to a
textured paper. The copy itself on the letter can be changed, offers can
be changed. The number of options to test here is almost limitless.
Moving on to the leaflet, the same applies here as did for the letterhead.
Copy, material, imagery; they're all fair game.
Last but not least we move on to the BRE. There's not a huge amount you
could do here. White or manila envelopes perhaps? Maybe even a colored
BRE? if it isn't going to cost a lot, why not try it.
Using these methods over time you can increase the effectiveness of your
mailings. Always test, even when you think you have the perfect package,
continue to run a test campaign against it, even if the difference between
the two is really quite small. If you continue to do this, your costs to
acquire a customer should fall and fall.
Overall, the point is that there is an almost infinitely large and almost
limitless opportunity for testing. Maybe it's this huge scope for testing
that puts people off, but I don't think it is. I think it's just a lack of
awareness of what you can do. You don't need to complicate things, you can
just run two packages with one difference between them and see how it
goes.
Whatever you do though, don't commit commercial suicide and fail to test.
 Win Yankee
and Mets Tickets!
We
are giving away two tickets to see the New York Yankees and Mets! To win,
be the first telephone caller (please don’t hit reply or email). Call
Michael Borkan at 631-667-5500 x 303. One set per winner. All games will
have fantastic seat locations.
-
Saturday June 9th Yankees vs. The
Pittsburgh Pirates 1:05 PM.
-
Wednesday June 6th Mets vs. The Philadelphia Phillies 7:10 PM.
Do
you know of anyone else who would be interested in receiving our
newsletter? Please let us know by email:
mb@talon-mailing.com
To
learn more about our company, please visit our web site:
www.talon.com or contact Michael Borkan at (631) 667-5500 x 303.
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In this
Issue:
Free New Postage Software Available by Download.
Direct Mail - The Deadly Sin Of Not Testing.
Yankee & Mets Ticket Giveaways!
New Clients
Mike Borkan's Links - Websites you probably
haven't
seen.
View Samples of our work.
Newsletter Archives
New Clients:
Talon welcomes the following new clients this month to our growing
roster of customers:
Mike's Favorite Links:
Some interesting links...
nevercoldcall.com - bestselling
author Frank Rumbauskas shows you the secrets to never cold calling again.
insiderpages.com - neighbors
helping neighbors find the best in your city. Local reviews of
restaurants, dentists, beauty salons, doctors, preschools, etc.
blingee.com - Create or personalize
custom image animation with glitter, comments, graphics.
podcityguides.com - Free City
Guides for your ipod. Find the best restaurants in town, the most popular
attractions, the hippest clubs or the trendiest shopping spots.
Work Samples:
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you know Talon offers the following services?
Click
on the links below to see samples.
Newsletters Archives:
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More About Talon:
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