Are direct mail response rates on the skids?

Originally Posted by Jolly Roger Words of wisdom. If you were to send an effective direct mail piece to this select crowd I think you'd be suprised at the response rate.

This hasn't ever changed. The better the list the better the response rate. I would submit that direct mail is taking a back seat to other media such as email.

Email customer lists are great for reminding your regulars to drop in and see new stock. Especially if you add a few little bribes, make a notice of newsletter with a little content in it and don't bother them too often.

Altho the volumes overall are down, the response rates are still very good. this came out today:

(Weymouth, MA) January 23, 2007… According to a study published recently by InfoTrends, consumers continue to have a high preference for direct mail over other forms of direct marketing. 61% of consumers surveyed stated a preference for direct mail, which is nearly triple the number that preferred receiving ads via e-mail. These findings can be attributed to the manageable and minimally intrusive nature of paper based communications

Originally Posted by SalesCoach A couple of days ago I was listening to a colleague talk about the history of direct mail. He mentioned that direct mail response rates weren't what they used to be twenty or thirty years ago. Do you agree?

training said that marriage mail is opened 52% with a national 3% response rate.

YP ROI is 13.3:1
DM ROI is 12:1

these 2 dominate ROI in the advertising sector!

Originally Posted by ilovesuperpages.com training said that marriage mail is opened 52% with a national 3% response rate. YP ROI is 13.3:1 DM ROI is 12:1 these 2 dominate ROI in the advertising sector!

ilovesuperpages.com do you have ROI numbers for other channels in the advertising sector?

Originally Posted by SpeedRacer ilovesuperpages.com do you have ROI numbers for others in the advertising sector?

take a trip to YPIMA's website..... I will look for it.. no time right now though.

Originally Posted by Jolly Roger Words of wisdom. If you were to send an effective direct mail piece to this select crowd I think you'd be suprised at the response rate.

Amen. I do this on a weekly basis and my response rate is equal to what was considered "an excellent return" as recently as 1980.

Perhaps your envelope supplier could add additional design features to your mail piece (creative opening devices) designs, etc. to improve the "opening" of your direct mail - thus generate additional returns.

Originally Posted by SalesCoach A couple of days ago I was listening to a colleague talk about the history of direct mail. He mentioned that direct mail response rates weren't what they used to be twenty or thirty years ago. Do you agree?

I think this has a lot to do with the area also. I know California is overly saturated with mail right now. I have a recycle bin between my mailbox and front door.

You can also see this if you go to a post office.

Response rate in Califorina is 0.5 percent, so for every two mailers you get one response, not a purchase, just a response. So at $.45 per mailer it costs 90 bucks to make some say hello. Plus postage rates are going up in less than a month http://www.usps.com/ratecase/
I would rather knock on doors, it is funny how the "no soliciting" sign looks like a "no smoking" sign at a glance. LOL But hey I need the exercise too.

Direct Mail response rates are certainly dropping in the 'mail plenty to get a few' type of mentality. Is this any surprise after the mass mailing in recent years from certain industry sectors ie Financial Services. Do not mail lists are now as common as do not call lists. Here in the UK last year we even had 2 of the most popular daily newspapers running campaigns to encourage people to register with MPS (do not mail).

By and large we as an industry (The Direct Mail Industry) have done very little to change peoples perceptions of 'junk mail'.

Fortunately more and more people are now waking up to the fact that highly personalised, highly relevant, highly targeted, one 2 one communications are pushing campaign ROI to previously unheard of levels