Direct Mail Basics: A Tale of Two Paths

Be warned, what is about to be shared below is not new information. This is information that people talk about often around marketing tables and some even execute.

Marketing teams are smart. They spend many hours planning and thinking of creative ways to reach their target markets. The problem for some is that those plans never get the results they envisioned. The infograph below tells the tale of many marketing campaigns. Two paths of direct marketing…

Path 1: Success

The path on the left is clearly a winner. Obtaining the correct prospect information prior to the marketing activity with the correct offer will always win. With about the same marketing cost, the response will be higher based on obtaining the right prospect list.

Path 2: Failure (or at best mediocre success)

The path on the right likely started as the same brainstorm session as the “success” side. Great intentions, but lacked the execution on the data analytics side.

What happened? While teams want to target the right audience for their marketing message, getting to that information always seems difficult. So, they settle with the information they can get and the results are mediocre.

What path does your marketing team take? Is it time to take the time to learn a little more about your data and execute with greater success?

Here are some suggestions on how to optimize your marketing efforts:Learn about your current, best customers. Make sure you collect all the information you have about them and organize it to find trends or patterns.
Invest in 3rd party data. Finding more about your current customers will help you find the best prospects.
Narrow your prospect list. Use the insights you have learned from your current customers to find new ones.
Keep learning. Once this campaign is complete, use what you have learned to improve the next one.

As always, if analytics isn’t your company’s expertise, let us help. B2E Direct has the expertise to help you take the successful path to optimize your marketing effort for the best ROI.

Always marketing,

Matt