Direct Mail Tips for 2014: Be Consistent

So far in my quest to help you produce consistently amazing results with direct mail in 2014, I have encouraged you to nail down a Unique Selling Proposition, target the correct prospects, and focus on benefits instead of features.

Now it is time to have THE TALK. It is all well and good for me to dispense tips and tricks for getting great results from direct mail, but I would be remiss if I did not lay a little hard truth on you…

You MUST be consistent with your mailings.

You may think this is a ploy to get you to order more, but that can’t be helped. You deserve the truth, and the fact of the matter is that consistency has a HUGE impact on response. It’s just the way it is.

I can prove it…

1) Individuals Respond to Repetition
The National Sales Executive Association released the following statistic in 2011, and it has become a benchmark in the marketing industry:

• 2% of sales are made on the first contact
• 3% of sales are made on the second contact
• 5% of sales are made on the third contact
• 10% of sales are made on the fourth contact
• 80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact

If you mail inconsistently, you are leaving a TON of sales on the table. How much more quickly would prospects move into the 80% bracket if you simply kept a consistent mailing schedule? Food for thought, indeed.

2) People Respond to Repetition
Think about yourself. Do you purchase after hearing one commercial one time? Whether you are targeting a local community at large or smaller pockets of targeted prospects within a larger community, consistent mailings build your name recognition. And this name recognition, or “top of mind” status, comes with a very real benefit: more sales.

Granted, the affect of name recognition is difficult to quantify. But I have over a decade of research from PostcardMania’s clients that proves that consistent mailings improve results, and I firmly believe that name recognition and “top of mind” status play a significant role in that success.

OUTFLOW=INFLOW
The final, but probably most important, reason consistent mailings are necessary is that the more you mail, the more money you will make. Optimizing designs and tweaking mailing lists are great, but ultimately mailing more quantity is the key to significantly increasing your return.
This principle has been the KEY to PostcardMania’s exponential growth over the years. Whenever I want to grow into a higher revenue bracket, I up the number of postcards I mail. That formula has never let me down yet – and it won’t let you down either.

ALTHOUGH: Twice I violated this principle – and twice I paid the price…

We practice what we preach here at PostcardMania. Right now we mail 160,000 pieces of direct mail every single week. For a long while, the number was 140,000. But toward the end of 2013, we cut it to 125,000 because we were doing so well. We had just come off the best summer (our slow time) we had ever experienced and we were feeling cocky. We had implemented a program prior to the summer to improve the quality of the mailing and tracked new business revenue versus marketing spend and it was working! So, why not save a bundle weekly? Right?

Wrong. You know what happened? Our revenue went down. We still had a stellar year – better than any previous year – but boy did I learn my lesson again.

I was worried about it from the first instant, so I told my senior execs so we could take action if our revenue dipped. Well, that is what happened, and we acted fast to not only stabilize the mailing numbers, but also increase it to 160,000! Guess what happened?

After the first week of the New Year, we are up 53% over that same week last year!

Moral of the story? Quality is very important in your marketing but QUANTITY is the true ruler of results!

Any consistent mailers out there? Tell me what happened when you finally took the plunge and set a consistent mailing schedule!

Best,
Joy