Survey Reveals Postcard Marketing Gets The Best Response Among US Households
In planning your ad campaign for your business, you have probably wondered what kinds of offline advertisements are most effective.
What is your best choice in an accountable and measurable transaction that is data rich and can provide your business with the best return on investment (ROI) for your advertising dollar?
You’ll need a method that appeals to your potential customers and results in a list of solid leads and/or action on your best offers. For these purposes, direct mail marketing with postcards is still one of the best tactics.
The Numbers behind Postcard Marketing
In 2012, the Direct Marketing Association released the results of a limited survey they had performed. In this study, postcards were mailed to people listed in a current customer file.
This list consisted of customers who had opted into the company’s mailing list and of customers with whom the company had done business. The response rate on this mailing was 2.47%. This is eight times the industry average! A similar mailing was done targeting prospective customers. These were customers whose names had been acquired through a lead supplier. Response rate from this list was 1.12%.
Let’s try comparing these results with data gathered by the United States Postal Service (USPS).
In their 2012 Household Study report, the USPS surveyed a broad public audience regarding response rates for various types of mailings. They found that the greatest percentage of people (23.4%) across the board indicated that they would respond to a postcard advertisement or request for donation.
That’s almost a quarter of US households!
The only other type of mailing to come anywhere close to this high percentage response rate was over-sized envelopes. Even so, only 16.6% of those surveyed said that they would respond to advertisements or requests for donations that they had received in larger than letter-size envelopes. This survey was conducted across all demographics in the US.
What Is So Appealing About Postcards?
Customers like the fact that it is easy to see what the message is about. Additionally, they appreciate the thriftiness of the format. It is not wasteful of resources, and it does not waste their time. Messages are usually concise, brief and easy to understand. Those surveyed also said they like the fact that it was easy to keep the postcard as a reminder of the offer in case they wanted to think about it and respond later.
Business owners’ reasons for preferring postcard marketing are similar to those of postcard recipients. Postcards are low-cost and provide an impressive return on investment when compared to all other means of offline direct marketing.
The Value of a Marketing Strategy in Direct Mail
Direct mail marketing through brochures, newsletters, postcards, catalogs sales letters and flyers has been proven to be the most effective and the most profitable means of marketing.
Using direct mail marketing is a popular choice for those wanting to reach a large amount of customers for the least amount of money, but it takes a solid strategy to really reap all the rewards.
There are four major components of a successful marketing campaign that play an important part in creating the perfect marketing strategy. Choosing the right target market, promoting the right message, presenting the right offer and creating the right campaign all are critical when using direct mail marketing.
Identify the Target Market
Perhaps the most important factor to consider when choosing to use direct mail marketing is the target market. Although direct marketing is considered a wise choice when it comes to making marketing dollars stretch, it’s very important to start with identifying the target market. Consider this, if a popular, hip rock star was to send out thousands of flyers promoting the concert to a religious group of older women, it’s almost guaranteed that there would not be a good turnout simply because the wrong target market was chosen. If the direct marketing is to be successful, the correct target market must be identified.
Promote a Consistent Message
Promoting the right message and choosing the correct design are also critical parts of creating a successful marketing strategy. Promoting the right message goes hand-in-hand with identifying the target market. Not promoting the correct message and design could have a negative effect on the success of direct mail marketing, especially if consumers are not clear about what the marketing message is. It’s safe to say that if it’s hard to decipher what exactly is being promoted, people tend to lose interest and the direct mail marketing can become useless.
Think about the need that your product fulfills and the problem that it solves for the customer.
Present the Right Offer
When creating a successful marketing strategy, it’s important to know what offers to present to the consumer, as well as how to present the offer. Timing is very important when it comes to choosing the right offer. For instance, a zoo might decide to offer discounts during off-seasons in order to boost sales. In this case, consumers who normally wouldn’t choose to visit the zoo in the middle of the winter might be tempted to go if there were some incentives to go during off-peak season.
Run the Right Campaign
When creating a successful market strategy, a lot of emphasis must be placed on creating the right marketing campaign. How long the campaign is expected to last is critical when creating the perfect strategy. In the case of the zoo, it may be wise to present certain offers during the off-peak season and not the peak season.
How often the campaign or strategy is used is also very important. When creating a successful marketing strategy, it’s important to keep the campaign fresh and to change up the strategy in order to avoid having a boring campaign.
Setting concrete expiration times is also an important part of building a successful marketing strategy. Setting expiration times for campaigns and promotions also helps to create a sense of urgency. All of these components play an important role when it comes to creating a successful marketing strategy.
Article by: Prospect plus
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