Money Saving Tips

The Beginning Stage of Analyzing Success

As with all things in business, starting from the bottom and working your way up is the most logical approach to get the job done. Once the job is complete, starting again with the most basic concept in order to analyze how successful your work has been is key.

The first step in analyzing your results of any direct mail campaign is to figure out how your company measures success, both overall and for a specific project. Below are different measurements companies may use to determine how well their campaign is doing.

Profit / donations
More customers / more donors
Current customers/donors increasing spending/donations
Long term customer/donor value
Break even (allows a no cost approach)
Absorb a loss in order to invest in new relationships

After determining how you measure success, take a look at target problems you have come across in the past and brainstorm ways to solve them for the future. What worked well and what didn’t? By identifying obstacles and road blocks from the past, you will be more prepared for the future.

Once you get the basics accomplished, the numbers speak for themselves.

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Cross Media Marketing vs. Static Direct Mail

Response rates to 1:1 and multi-channel marketing campaigns are dependent on the relevancy of the campaign and vary widely dependent on the campaign and data used. There are 2 keys to increased results: the first thing is to consider your target market, the second is your offer.

The more targeted your mailing list is the more successful your campaign will be. It’s important to collect data at every point possible. Even if you have no more than a mailing list, by using an offer you can collect relevant information on your prospects to make each leg of your campaign more successful. Track your click through rates and time spent on each part of the site. Track how and where your leads are interacting with QR Codes. The more information you collect, the more targeted your campaign can be, and the higher your RoI will be. Once you complete one program, you can use the data you collect to make the next more targeted, leading to a continuously improving response rate.

An offer is an excellent driver to motivate a lead to interact with you. The offer needs to be relevant to the target market and it needs to include enough of a reward to mediate any risk you are asking the prospect to take. In short, the offer needs to be targeted based on whether your goal is to acquire new clients or retain and grow current ones.

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News Alert from Us: Please Stop Paying 1st Class Postage

There is inaccurate information being disseminated regarding when a direct mail piece should have 1st class postage (now 45 cents) affixed to it. The answer for those who mail at standard rates — over 500 pieces — is almost never.
If you are being advised by someone you work with, be it a printer, designer or whomever that you’d be better off “Mailing it 1st class,” your immediate response should be “Why?” You see, it’s much simpler for some printers and designers (who broker out the work) to get you to agree to pay 1st class postage rates and here is why: they don’t need to follow any postal rules and no paperwork is required to be presented at the post office.

Consider: to mail your annual appeal of 10,000 pieces at .45 = $4,500 in postage (with an average delivery time of 3-5 days), compared to 10,000pieces mailed out at .18 cents (approximate) = $1,800 (with an average delivery time of 4-6 days).

Make sense? Before you waste any more of your constituents’ money, STOP! Ask why and listen for the silence when your direct marketing “partner” doesn’t know what to say.

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Are Annual Reports Still Necessary?

You’re not required to do an annual report. But your organization can only benefit by having one.
The main purpose of an annual report is to highlight accomplishments. You don’t need a glossy 20 page document though.
If you are a small non-profit that would, in fact, not be a good use of your resources. Did you know you can produce a short, simple piece of 4-6 pages to send to your constituents? Include the following:

>Your Accomplishments – Don’t overwhelm your readers with a lot of text and statistics. Use pictures, short stories
and quotes. For example, an after school program could show pictures of kids engaged in activities that emphasize the work you are doing. Make sure to show results too.

>Your Financials – Include your revenue and expenses. Break them down by department, (program, administration, etc.) But keep it simple to understand by using a pie chart or bar graph.

>A donor List – Maybe just your major donors in the printed piece and all donors on the website. Group by giving levels.

>Say Thank You – In a brief introduction, have the Executive Director and/or Bd Chair thank all supporters (in the donor section also).

You DO NOT need to mail your AR to all supporters. Perhaps it gets mailed only to your major supporters. The annual report should go on the website where you can let everyone know it is available. You can include a special email announcement or mention the AR in your newsletter. Anyone who requests a hard copy, as many older supporters will, should be able to get one. Hard copies should also be available for prospects and other interested parties.

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Integrate, Combine, and Thrive!

Combining direct mail and other marketing activities is a no-brainer if you want to increase your response rates and RoMI. At Rescigno’s, we are seeing that measuring RoMI, with and without direct mail, shows that the addition of direct mail to a marketing campaign increases RoMI by about 20% or $4.17 to $5.03 for every dollar spent.
This informal study of our customer base (those responding), once again shows the growing importance of integrating campaigns and the effectiveness of direct mail as a primary role player alongside other marketing activities.
At Rescigno’s, we continue to espouse that it is the striking of the right balance of channels to reach increasingly targeted audiences that is the key to successful marketing strategies in 2012 and beyond.
For converting the desire and intention to act, be it to give, volunteer, sign up, opt in, etc., direct mail is an essential mechanism in the marketing mix.

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