4 Myths about Direct Mail Testing

June 10, 2010 by Tim
Filed under: Direct Marketing Mailing

Is Direct mail marketing making a comeback in 2010.

Copy, Offer, Lists, Formats, Personalization —Questions that you might have yourself before testing your next
campaign.

With reduced competition in the mailbox and e-mail essentially failing as a prospect tool, 2010 can actually be the year when response to direct mail picks up, especially if you test and do it right.

Do you look at response rate or profit per hundred mailed or profit per order when evaluating results?

Make sure your measuring your direct mail marketing results accurately. Response rate is not as critical, in my opinion, as the other two, although it can greatly influence your profits.

What can I do to convince my company to start reinvesting the marketing budget back into direct mail instead of throwing the entire marketing budget at Web marketing?

Make a compelling case for direct mail’s accountability, and show them what your competitors are doing—or not doing—to make your case.

Talk about the control package failure aspect of direct marketing a
Direct mail is the best way to drive more site visits; even Facebook users are finding that out.

Present a compelling case, supported by statistics you find.

You’ve heard that a different headline would pull up to six times more than another. Is this true?

Headlines and, in a sales letter, the P.S.Post Script are read first, so that’s where you’ll see a good deal of impact. Even changing a single word in the headline can make a significant difference.

Decades ago, the legendary John Caples increased response 20 percent by changing “How to repair cars” to “How to fix cars.” Sometimes surprisingly mundane changes work wonders.

An educational institute for bankers once asked us how to get more branch managers to respond to its newspaper ad.

We suggested simply adding the words “branch managers” in large type at the top of the ad, leaving everything else, including the headline, unchanged. Replies shot up.

It makes sense that a product priced at $24 would outsell the same one priced at $29, but the opposite is often true.

So, rather than try to reason which wording will sell more, you can know by doing a split-copy test. (I assume you’re dealing with a headline. If the wording is buried in copy, I would stress over other things first.)

Until next time, here is to your continued success!

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About the Author:

Tim G. Little has a BS in Business Administration, and has worked in the magazine publication and circulation management for the past 20 years. As an Internet Publisher and Entrepreneur, he has developed a website to help small business entrepreneurs find the best mailing list and marketing programs ps: I would like to recommend a tool to you to help find Boost Sales… Gain Market Share.. . With Focused List Selection, Tips and Tools for Finding the Perfect List. Once you e-mail segments, track how they differently they react to messaging options.

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