Would You Believe a 75% Response Rate for Direct Mail?

You know, a typical direct mail campaign normally gets a paltry 1-2% response rate. It's nothing too impressive, but companies still like using them to market their products. And, why shouldn't they? It doesn't have to cost a lot of money, and you can target it towards a specific group - people living within a certain radius of your store, for example. So, 1-2% isn't great, but what would you say if I told you Red Rocket got an unbelievable 75%? We did, and I'm about to let you in on the secret.

But first, let's talk about direct marketing. The American Marketing Association defines direct marketing as "The total of activities by which the seller, in affecting the exchange of goods and services with the buyer, directs efforts to a target audience using one or more media for the purpose of soliciting a response by phone, mail, or personal visit from a prospect or customer." Cool. But, what does that mean? Well, you know when a telemarketer calls and tries to see if you're interested in learning more about a certain product? Well, that's direct marketing. They're coming directly to you and trying to get you to buy.

Now, telemarketing is just one channel in direct marketing; there are a lot more - catalog selling, direct-action selling and direct mail, to name a few. Now, what we want to take a look at is direct mail, since we just spent a bit of time testing it. You may not know this, but direct mail is currently the third largest advertising medium behind newspapers and television. The big difference, of course, is the lower cost than the top two advertising media.

Why is direct mail so much cheaper? Well, let's put it simply: You only have the cost of the paper, printing, postage and any design help you might have hired to accomplish it. Basically, a direct mail campaign consists of postcards, sales letters or other printed materials. I know you've gotten them in your mailbox before, and you may have even read some of them. A common example is a charity that often sends out a letter soliciting donations, and in the envelope, there are return address labels with your name on them. That's direct mail.

Direct mail is usually just one mailing, and it's left at that. With just one mailing, you've got to find some way of making your mailer look more important. If you're sending out a sales letter, there are things you can do to make them a little more interesting to the consumer: use bold colors on a larger envelope that you've personalized in some way. A postcard can be nice and flashy, and the same can be said for a brochure. Still, all of these can still easily be thrown away, so why not do something bigger, more noticeable? We'll get to that in just a bit. . . .

When you send out just one mailer, you've got a problem: Marketing research shows that a prospect has to have at least seven contacts with a marketing message for it to stick in their minds. If you're sending out just one piece of mail, it's easy for the person getting it to just put it in the circular file. However, if you hit them seven times, the theory is one of them won't just get pitched.

Think about that for a moment. Seven impressions - the number of times a marketing message is seen - is quite a bit. Think about when you're watching television. Is there one commercial that really stands out to you? It could even be one so annoying you change the channel once it starts. How many times have you seen that ad? Can you remember the first time you saw it? Probably not. However, by the seventh time, you're probably thinking they play the thing during every commercial break. You might even be at the point where you're ready to change the channel to save yourself from having to see it again, but admit it: it did make an impression.

That's what you've got to do with direct mail. If you send out just one mailer, it's easy for the prospects to throw it away without even looking at it, or maybe they do look at it, read your offer and then throw it away. That's one mailer down the tubes with very little action. However, let's say you send them another and another, eventually, the prospect will start to recognize you and your product. They might even see it when they're out and decide to check it out in person.

But, here's something you can do to get a quick impact out of your direct mail campaign: Don't just think of sending paper. Remember when I mentioned doing something bigger? I've heard of people sending out metal lunchboxes with their sales letter, brochure and other enclosures in it. While it was probably quite expensive, the idea was very different, and it made quite an impact on the recipients.

Well, Red Rocket did almost the same thing when we decided to do our teaser campaign back in the fall of 2006, and we went all-out. Now, here's what we did. We knew we wanted to do seven mailings to a handful of clients - remember that seven is the magic number in marketing. So, we first had to determine a budget we'd be comfortable spending to bring in new clients. Once we knew our budget, we could then start deciding on what we wanted to send out.

The first mailing had to be vague; each subsequent mailing had to give more information as to who we are, but it was still just a hint. Finally, by the last mailing, we'd identify ourselves and get the prospect to act. As with any teaser campaign, you want to make your mailings memorable. So, we decided to send a package that carried a white box with a red ribbon tied around it. Inside the package would be a postcard giving very little detail and a red item cradled by red crinkle paper.

Now, that first week had to be something significant to get people to really take notice. What did we choose to do? Well, we decided to send out a red light bulb and a postcard that just asked a vague question. Imagine if you were the person getting this. What would you think? Would you just look at it and throw it away, or would you do some searching to get some more info?

For each of the next five weeks, we sent out a new red item in a white box. Next, we sent a red bag of coffee. The following weeks were boxing gloves, a cash register, a Mylar balloon and a jar of red jellybeans. Each mailing came with a postcard giving just a touch of more detail than the last, but during the third week, we gave them a website to check out. The hits started rolling in, and we knew we had them hooked.

When the seventh week rolled around, we were ready to tell them who we were. That's when they got a full-color brochure linking each item we sent them to a way Red Rocket could help their company out: We listed off the benefits of working with Red Rocket. For example, with the boxing gloves, the headline said "Knock out your competition." More importantly, the copy listed how important we believe strategy is to understanding the client and their needs.

Now, all of that's just what we did, and if you know anything about Red Rocket, you know how we feel about testing marketing solutions. Our teaser campaign wasn't only good for us - yes, it brought us more clients - but it's also a good thing for you. How's it good for you? Practice makes perfect, you know, and we've done our part to find the successful options for our clients. You see, the reason we're the fastest growing marketing firm in Northern Colorado is because of the commitment we put to finding the best solutions for our clients. That's why we feel, when you're ready to take your marketing to the next level, you should look no further than Red Rocket.