News
 Mailing
Smarter in an Economic Recession
By James Sullivan, Project Director of Optic Nerve
Direct Marketing
“The economic recession has been tough on the
mailing industry, and we have seen an unprecedented
decline in mail volumes and revenue that continued
to accelerate during the second quarter,” said
Postmaster General John Potter. “We are aggressively
realigning our costs to match the lower mail
volumes, while also maintaining the high level of
service and reliability our customers expect. We are
also taking a number of steps to grow revenue,” the
Postmaster went on to say.
Well, what do you think about that? Shouldn’t you
also look to your own databases to cull out the
deadbeat names, mail smarter, and grow your revenue
streams by mailing less with more?
One of my magazines’ clients, Red Herring Magazine,
got out of the direct mail solicitation business
entirely; they went to a digital version for a few
months and then moved onto a strictly daily email
newsletter promoting their global business events.
No more direct mail for them. Some big mailers are
doing the same thing, but that is not the best
answer to mail less and get stronger revenue
streams. The true answer is to mail smarter.
A number of nonprofits that used to mail to their
entire database of donors are also refining their
database to get rid of old names, lapsed donors, or
folks that they have determined shouldn’t be mailed
to anymore. Well, you might even budget an appeal to
just those people. For example—a special A-6
invitation- sized mailing was sent by an HIV-Aids
organization to 500 of their lapsed donors that had
not donated to the organization in over five years.
The simple “invitation to contribute” letter, with a
compelling image of one of their clients, did the
trick…it ended up with a whopping 8% response rate
and a whopping increase in sorely needed donations.
What was so compelling to make these 40+ people
respond? A nice little two-line sentence that read,
“Won’t you help those less fortunate than you in
these troubling times?” Simple and very effective,
even the folks that had not responded for five years
could not resist helping out!
They mailed less, but smarter, focusing on donors
they already had in their database and provided a
targeted, focused, and compelling message that
shared the story that even in these disturbing
times, there are still less fortunate folks out
there that need your help.
The goal is to look at your database list—what
sectors of your data population have you not touched
in a while? Even with very little money to spread
around for a test, now is the time to try something
different. After all, your mailbox and mine are
practically empty. Now is the time to try something
unique, something new to an old audience, or a new
vertical market that is on your radar screen but not
on the list of things to do. Now is the time to mail
less, get more, and Mail Smarter.
---Source:
James Sullivan is Project Director of
Optic
Nerve Direct Marketing, a Direct
Marketing/PR/New Media consultancy headquartered in
San Francisco, Ca. He is also an established
Favorite Author of Melissa Data’s
Direct Marketing Advisor. You can reach him at
james@opticnervedirect.com. |
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