Improve Your Direct Mail ROI...

Small changes can make a big dent in your mailing budget. In a survey by Target Marketing magazine, marketers say they're reducing direct mail costs by: switching vendors (26%), not mailing low response areas (22%), reducing weight (22%), merging/purging lists (15%),

The biggest cost of direct mail is postage. So reduce it -- either by cutting per piece postage or eliminating non-productive names. If you keep your own database, running it through NCOA (National Change of Address) and doing a merge/purge annually can pay for itself ten times over. And often, a new vendor can help you find other new ways to cut costs.

In my experience, if your database hasn't been updated in 18 months, you're wasting about 20% of your budget -- based on address changes alone. For instance, I got a telemarketing call last week for my dead grandmother. Really. I bought my grandparent’s home years ago -- and changed their number to my name. That database must be at least 7 years old! What a waste of money!

- Phil Sasso

Internet Traffic

Why are end-users visiting your website? According to Forrester Research: Product Info (79%), Where To Buy (49%), Accessories (42%), New Products (37%), Tech Support (31%).

Knowing who’s visiting and why can help you improve customer service -- and sales. For instance, if they want accessories, make it as quick as possible to jump to accessories.

We encourage clients to put user manuals online free of charge. The marketing value of this is immeasurable. Users of this service have said they’re more inclined to buy this brand again because of it.

- Phil Sasso

PR: One Thousand Words...

One Photo is Worth 1,000 Words.

Trade journal editors are about 10 times more likely to use a news release if it has a good photo, according to a recent survey of trade journal editors.

So, to get more placements just include a photo, right?

Wrong. The key phrase here is a GOOD photo. Editors have told me they get a LOT of awful photos – blurry, dark snapshots taken by an amateur and processed at Wal-Mart. In my experience, most editors prefer publication-quality digital images on disk – or better yet, the Web. It makes their work quicker and gives them a better result. In fact, we’ve developed an entire web site to provide editors with news releases and photos (http://PRnewsbureau.com).

When published, product mentions with photos also tend to draw more sales leads. Why? Photos attract people’s attention more than words alone. Think about photos next time you’re paging through a trade journal -- and the next time you’re sending out a new release.

- Phil Sasso

Marketing QC...

Oops!

Always double check. When you’re proofreading, get a second set of eyes to help you. Our brain tends to miss – or even correct details when we’ve looked at something too often.

A mistake that costs $50 to change at the design stage could cost $500 at pre-press and might cost $5,000 to change on press, according to the US Postal Service’s "Guide to Direct Marketing." A big enough mistake could even cost you your job!

Did you ever notice that most mistakes happen when you’re especially busy or rushing a project? The best solution is to plan ahead to give yourself ample time for quality control. And always make the time to double check.

- Phil Sasso