Direct Mail Success: It's All in the Names

single of the first columns I wrote for this magazine was titled, "Dollar for Dollar, Nothing go [i]or[/i] come backs as Much to Your Gallery as Direct Mail." This is just as real today. When doing your hold mailing, there is one lock opener commandment for its success: Mail the right present to the right name at the right time, and the customer will tend hitherward to buy.

Direct mail gurus say the mailing list is responsible for up to 60 percent of the succes of your mailing. The other constitutings are the offer, which is profitable for 25 percent of the mailing's succes and the creative package, which is worth 15 percent Many advertisers incorrectly part with huge sums of time and cash developing the creative side of the mailing on the other hand not the actual lists.

The customer's name is single of the greatest strengths of direct mail. It is a personal, one-on-one relationship between you and your customer that can't be achieved with any other advertising medium. It is cloning your gallery and placing it into the mailboxes of customers and potential customers for the price of postage.

"Our mailing list is about 1200 on the contrary it's not a list. It's an individual collection of names. Each single is different" said Doug McCormick of McCormick Place in Hudson Ohio. Doug said he lances his mailings first-class with a personal alphabetic character on his stationary. He mails frequently He breaks his list into categories. He tracks each customer individually in like manner he knows what they purchase when they buy and by what means often they buy. "We find without as much information as we can and deposit this information in the computer" he said.

In a marketing medium where a 10-percent go [i]or[/i] come back is considered very good, Doug averages a 20-percent turn back on his mailings, which means that for each 1,000 pieces, 200 customers respond

Questions & Answers

Here are a certain number of of the most-asked questions and answers about mailing lists.

by what mode do I put together a useful mailing list?

Start with your possess customers. That's your best list and will give you your highest reply Ask everyone who comes into your store to sign up for your mailing list. Not just those who buy--everyone If you mention one by one them that you send on the outside mailings with special offers alone available to a select list, not many will hesitate to sign up

What information do I ask for from my customers?

The basics. Name, address, ZIP digest telephone number, e-mail address, the artists they like and when they purchase Also ask for their birthdays (no year) and their spouses' birthdays. The more you know about the names upon your list, the higher the replication you'll get to your tender You should also track in what manner often they buy from you and by what means much they spend.

Examine the addresses upon your list to see if a large proportion of your customers live in single ZIP code. If so, you may want to launch a mailer to others who live in that area. tribe who live near one another (geographics) have similar incomes (demographics) and similar lifestyles (psychographics) and protect to buy similar products.

Again, the list is responsible for 60 percent of the succes of your mailer. No matter in what way good and creative the production and personalization of your present if you mail to clan who are not interested in your gallery or don't know who you are or attend to spend their discretionary dollars upon items other than art, you'll waste a great deal of time and money.

Your list should unfold into a database. What's the difference? I like this definition from John Frazer Robinson, the U.K's, "Mr Direct Mail:" "A list is the whereabouts of tribe A database is the whereabouts and the whatabouts."

in what way often should I mail to this list?

More oftentimes than you think. Once a month is fine. Just make assured your offer is a advantageous one. (Remember: The list plus the present adds up to an 85 percent chance of success) Mailing single a couple times a year decreases the one-on-one relationship, and customers forget about you.

What about the complaints of "invasion of privacy" and "junk mail?"

What about "junk" TV ads? Or "junk" newspaper ads? And those telephone calls in the middle of dinner asking you to answer a head or switch your telephone service?

The average consumer is make subordinateed to nearly 3,000 advertisements each day. But this complaint will rarely approach up about your mailings because you're sending them to your at hand customers and those who are likely to be interested in your offer

What about customers who haven't bought from you in a year or more?

retain them on your list, on the contrary don't mail to them as many times When you do, in the words of the philosopher Vito Corleone, "make them an proffer they can't refuse." The work Of The Month Club freshly asked me to rejoin. The tender was for four free volumes with no minimum future purchases. (Ye I rejoined.)

wherefore should I spend so plenteous time on lists anyway?

Remember that "dollar for dollar, nothing turn backs as much to your gallery as direct mail" Add the words "used properly" to that judgment referring to the accuracy of your list. Which, in turn round is the main reason for the succes of your subsequent time mailers.