HOW TO GAUGE THE SUCCESS OF YOUR DIRECT MARKETING CAMPAIGNS
Direct mail marketing is a great way to effectively market your products and services. Using special tools such as variable data printing and targeted direct mailing lists can enhance direct mail response rates by as much as 61%.
You may be thinking the response rate is the proper barometer of success for a direct marketing campaign � but it's actually just the start. Direct mail marketing can be a tremendous success with low response rates� or a monumental failure with high response rates.
If your business is like most others, you probably have a two-step sales process. The first step is generating a sales lead, followed by closing that lead with a sale.
You must determine the response rate, or the number of sales leads you need by looking at the following three vital numbers in direct mail lead generation.
Qualified Lead Rate
First, look at how many of the responses you receive are actually qualified leads. This is the percentage of all inquiries, or sales leads, that are ready to talk with a salesperson. They are �qualified� in that they can afford what you're offering, have the authority to buy (B2B), need what you're selling and are ready to act. For direct mail marketing, the average qualified lead rate is 25%.
Appointment Rate
Once you have qualified leads, a certain number of those will actually take a sales appointment or demonstration, alas, giving you an appointment rate. Not all qualified leads will meet with you for any number of reasons. In fact, an average of only 30% of qualified leads goes on to meet with a salesperson.
Close Rate
As you probably have guessed, the close rate is the percentage of sales appointments that end in a sale, which is sometimes expressed as a ratio. Closing two out every four appointments gives you a 50% close rate. Most industries average 25%, or one in four.
As you can more clearly see now, direct mail marketing can be quite successful with a low response rate if your close rate is high. However, higher response rates are necessary if the close rate is lower. Response rates only tell you how successful you are at generating leads but closing the sale is a whole different story.
Custom printing service Online Prints provides full direct mail marketing services, from full-color design and postcard printing to targeted mailing lists and has all of the tools available to make the most of your direct mail investment.
Contact us and get started reaching new customers today!
