R.I.P. 11x17 tri folds

I wore black today in honor of our old friend, the 11x17 self mailer, tri-fold.

People, I'm just going to be blunt--this thing is DEAD.

This is more of a public service announcement than advice to our current clients as most of them have known this for quite some time.
Here's the deal-we have this very cool, fresh technology that tracks all the traffic at mail sales. Over 90% of our sales have this tracking tool now so we know exactly how much traffic is walking through the doors off of different mailers.
.49% of people that receive an 11x17 tri fold (with a scratch off and a prizes, etc) will show up
2% will show up for a jumbo postcard with a key - that's an average not a "best sale" or the average of the good sales
So you have to do almost ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND 11x17 tri folds to get the same traffic you would off of 20,000 jumbo key mailers.
Don't skimp and think you are getting more because you are getting a higher quantity--with times as they are I know you all need to be spending as wisely as possible. The data speaks for itself

Recent Successful Sales

In the midst of everything that's going on in the automotive industry and the country in general--I feel very positive right now. Now, more than ever, I feel like Direct Mail & one to one marketing (emails, purls, etc) is helping car dealers bring in more traffic and sell more cars. We have a higher response rate now (actually double from 1.5 years ago) than we've ever had-an average of 1% across all mailers and an average of up to 2% on several specific products. The national average for mail is .5%. Here are just a few stories from sales in the past few weeks...

• In Elizabeth City, NC one dealer sent out 30,000 mailers at the end of April and had 866 people in-that's 2.9% foot traffic.
• In Kansas City, MO a large Metro Chevy dealer sent out 43,000 pieces and had 599 people in the last week of April.
• In the Dayton, OH market a Dodge store had 492 ups off of 20,000 mailers.
• Cincinnati, OH a Ford dealer experienced a 3.3% response the end of April-having 660 people come in off of 20,000 pieces.

All of these stats are not guesses or estimates, they are the number of people that scanned in to MarketVision-these dealers are able to see exactly how many people have scanned in, where they are coming from and what sales person spoke to them...along with all their contact info--whenever they want on our website. PS: Yes, I know my posts are typically not "salesy" in nature...with results like this I'm getting to the point where I feel guilty for not sharing the huge successes that are happening out there. If you want more info on our mail contact me so we can help you with traffic at your store.

Make the most of YOUR Direct Mail Week-Day 2

Day #2 Tip

Do NOT waste money on 11x17 tri-fold mailers with a scratch off

The dream is over, they do not work. We're talking about .041% response rate on average vs. some products that average over 2%. Bite the bullet, pay double on the per piece costs and get 4 times the amount of people in the door.

That means for the same budget you spend on tri-folds you should be able to double your traffic by doing half as much mail. Want to talk to someone who is doing this? Let me know--I'll hook you up with a few.

Post-It's add Pizzaz!

Here's a sticky idea! A Post-It. Adding a Post-It isn't a new idea, after all the "J letter" has been making its rounds for years, but now you can add them to the already popular oversized mailers!

Add a Post-It to our Oversized 9x12 inch envelopes or Jumbo 9.5x14 inch postcards and you've got a real winning combo. Just wanted to pass along this new idea as you think about March.

Check back monthly for our Hot Seller of the Month!

Using MarketVision to lower your costs & increase response

It's been a while since I've specifically blogged about MarketVision, and I suppose for the past few months I've been sitting back to see what real gains dealers were experiencing by using it with their direct mail campaigns. After several really great conversations this week I decided it's time to at least talk about how some dealers are lowering their costs and increasing their response using this technology. I've been working with a Cincinnati area dealer for several years. They are a large, domestic dealer and have typically blasted their market with 100,000 pieces for several months in a row. The first few sales were always very good, and then results would start to dwindle and they'd take a break for a while. These sales were successful for them and they were always pretty happy until it was time for a break again. Three months ago it was time for them to start doing mail again. This was the first time they used the MarketVision kiosk with their mailer (http://www.marketvisionauto.com/). Three months later they have 3 sales worth of data.

So how does MarketVision help me lower advertising costs & increase results?

I know - sounds like an infomercial - but here's the deal:

1. Gather data-start using MarketVision on all your mailers. It's cheap and includes free follow-up letters to everyone who comes in.
2. After several sales do some analytics on the information. This is something I can certainly help with.
3. Eliminate zip codes you've been mailing to that just don't perform (Savings!)!
4. Make a list of zip codes that do perform.
5. Make a list of some areas that could hold opportunities. New markets you've never or rarely hit, your competitors market, new carrier routes, etc.
6. Divide your high performing zip codes into equal parts. For instance-3 parts so you can hit your entire list once per quarter, 4 parts so you can hit it all every month, etc.
7. Here's the fun part-this list will not contain the zips that don't perform so you will send out less mail, but you'll be concentrating on the people that are likely to respond so your response will go up. You're also being careful to spread out who you are hitting so the results don't dwindle as you have to move farther away from your store. Sprinkle in a few of those areas you'd like to try each sale, and you can start determining NEW MARKETS to add to your "responders" list.

I'll even do your first MarketVision analysis for you-free! Give me a call if you want to talk about the data we've already collected, or if you want to start measuring what your mail is doing for you in 2009.