August 22, 2007
Awareness vs Direct Response
Here’s a great post I came across today. It has some great application to your marketing efforts.
When putting together a Marketing with Postcards strategy, a good first place to start is deciding whether the campaign will be to create awareness or create a quick direct response sale. Don’t get me wrong here, it is all about sales, but is the sale going to come about as a result of continually reinforcing the awareness of the product, or as a result of a one-time here’s-your-offer, direct response message.
The direct response strategy is for products that can be purchased more on a whim or impulse like the CD of the Month Club, a Bose Wave Radio, or candy at the check-out counter. If the customer wants that product, they will buy it now. The rule-of-thumb is that you will get 80% of responses in the first two weeks after mailing. Subsequent mailings will have half of the response rate of the prior mailing. So if you get a response rate of 4% on the first mailing, the second mailing’s response rate should be 2%.
The awareness strategy is for products with a longer sales cycle where customers need to both be at a time in their life when they need to buy, and time to think - products like life insurance, selling a home, or financial planning. The rule-of-thumb is that response rates go up over time as the awareness increases and the probability of hitting the customer at just the right time increases. Most real estate companies, for example, recommend touching prospects at least once per month - continually.
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Filed under Direct Mail, Lawn Care Marketing by Chestin
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