Direct Mail/Marketing

[wannacmyglock]

Just curious if any of yall use direct mail or some other type of direct marketing for your business. If so, what type of business, what type of volume, where did you aquire your list from? How many times do you send a certain mail piece to the same house before sending a different piece. Do you follow up with a phone call? If so, what percentage of people on your lists are typically on the Do Not Call list?

I'm about to start a new direct mail campaign. I've spoke with others in my industry about their response rates to see what I can expect.

I'll be obtaining my lists through http://www.datawarehouse.com . I'm pretty sure they offer lists for other industries as well so take a look if you're doing direct mail. I'll probably start 3500-5000 mail pieces a month. Everybody on the list will get a mail piece twice in that month. The next month, the same mail piece will go out at the beggining of the month. In the middle of the month, a second mail piece will be introduced. This piece will also be mailed a total of 3 times. An 800 number will also be included on the mail piece. This number allows them to call for Free reports. The number is setup with a call capture system so I have their name and telephone number of everybody who called and requested info. After 3 or 4 different mail pieces, I'll be scrubbing my list against the DNC list and telemarket those non-responsive people. I'm hoping I can pull off a sucessful campaign. My projections show a Return on Investment (ROI) of almost 400%. Not to shaby, but considering all the other business expenses, it won't take long to eat up that return.

[bullet1]

I haven't done alot of direct mailings, but I found I got about a 1% response from my mailings. If a follow up call was made I would figure 3%. The mailing were for a security company I worked for. Remember, I'm not a marketing specialist, and the mailers were made by myself. So perhaps the numbers were low due to my lack of experience. Anyway, I would be interested in hearing how it works for you and you type of business.

[Cali-Glock]

I service a small niche - about less than 2K companies and 20K individuals. Since both the companies and individuals are licensed by the State I purchase lists from the state - though the addresses for the individuals are all but worthless for several reasons:

1: Wrong addresses (people not keeping the state informed of their current address or employment.)
2: Relatively high turnover so a lot of these folks on the list may still be technically licensees but are no longer in the industry.
3: The correct address is typically the individual's work address, and most employers throw away mail addressed to their employees/licensees.

I would be surprised if 1 in 3 mailers even reach my targeted person.

[RBR]

You might contact a company that uses GIS(geographical information systems); more specifically that uses ESRI's ArcGIS with the Business Analyst extension.

They can help you target your intended audience and hopefully not waste your money.