Why Some Personalized Mailings Just Work Better

When it comes to increasing response and conversion rates, personalized communications are a powerful tool. However, don’t think that all personalization is equal. It isn’t. To get great results, you must use the right variables with the right audience in the right way.

Response rates for personalized mailings can vary widely. One study found response rates ranging from 6% to 75%, with an average of 21%. These are some eye-catching numbers, but why is the range so wide? To understand the variation and set realistic expectations for your own campaigns, it’s helpful to ask specific questions.

•    What type of campaign was it? Customer acquisition? Customer retention?

•    What kind of list did you use? Highly targeted, moderately targeted, or undifferentiated lists will yield different results.

•    Did recipients have a previous relationship with your company?  Or are you using a prospect list? 

•    What is the value of the product? Are you marketing a webinar or selling a Tesla? 

•    Did per-order value go up with personalization, and if so, by how much?  A “low” response rate combined with a high per-order value will often net you better ROI than a high response rate with low per-order value.

•    How are you measuring success? Response rates? Conversion rates? Cost per lead? Average sale? Each measurement tells a different story.

The answers to such questions can have a dramatic impact on understanding ROI. So before setting your expectations for your next personalized mailing, talk to us about your goals, expectations, and the data you are working with. Setting realistic expectations is a critical component to making your 1:1 print program a success.

Please give us a call at 440-946-0606
Or visit our website here for more information.



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Want to Keep Customers? Ask Their Opinion (Then Act on It)

Want to keep your customers loyal and continuing to shop from you? Ask their opinion . . . then act on what you learn.

One of the most important ways you can value someone is to ask their opinion. When you ask what they think, it makes them feel important. From a marketing perspective, this deepens customer engagement and solidifies their loyalty.  If you actually act on what you learn from those customers, so much the better.

Let’s look at an example. A regional grocery store chain was experiencing increased competitive pressure from a large national chain and wanted to preserve its most valuable customer relationships. The chain sent two personalized surveys to its top 400 customers: one in the fall and one in the spring.

The first survey included six survey questions and a letter addressed to the shopper, signed by the store manager. The second was a follow-up to find out how well the chain had addressed the concerns raised in the first survey. Recipients of the second mailer also received a personalized cover letter from the store manager.

The surveys received a 52% response rate. While specific data on customer retention was not provided, a research study conducted by Rice University and published in Harvard Business Review found that, over the course of a year, customers who received similar customer surveys were twice as likely to continue their relationship with the company than those who did not.[1] We can assume a similar result here.

Once people have made a purchase from you, they are your customers to lose. Show them that you care what they think, that their opinions are valuable, and that you will act on information they share with you. They will reward you with their loyalty.

Need help designing a customer survey to incorporate into your next mailing? Let us help!

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[1] “Sending out a Survey to Customers Can Double Sales,” by Vivek Bhaskaran, www.questionpro.com.

Please give us a call at 440-946-0606
Or visit our website here for more information.


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3 Approaches to Measuring Results

When you invest in any marketing effort, you want to know if it’s working. There are many approaches to results measurement, and the right choice for any marketing campaign will depend on your marketing goals. For numerous marketers, response rates are the first measurement they use. But there are other measures that are more telling.

Let’s look at three of them. 

1. CPL (cost per lead). When you are developing a mail campaign, it’s easy to focus on the price per piece. It’s hard for personalized mailers to compete with high-volume static mail on a cost basis, but everything changes when you look at what your program costs per lead.

If you mail 100,000 postcards at $.25 each (including postage), that’s a project cost of $25,000. If that campaign achieves a 1% response rate, that’s 250 leads at the cost of $100 per lead. On the other hand, if you mail 25,000 personalized mailers at $1.00 each, that is still a project cost of $25,000. However, if you achieve a 12% response rate, that’s 3,000 leads. Now your cost per lead drops to $8.33!

2. CPS (cost per sale). Not all leads translate into sales. To find out what it costs you to actually close a sale, divide the number of people who make a purchase into your total costs. If only 33% of respondents to the above campaign make a purchase, for example, your cost per sale is $300 for the static campaign, while for the personalized campaign, it is $25.00.

3. LCV (lifetime customer value). The value of the sale often goes beyond the initial purchase. If personalized communications woo the buyer of one automaker to another, and if that customer becomes loyal to that brand, the return on investment from that mailing piece includes the value of every car purchased by that customer over his or her lifetime. This is an important metric for marketers of long-term purchases, such as automobiles, financial products, and insurance.

The bottom line? Before you measure your results in any print campaign, make sure you understand all of the available measuring sticks, then use the one(s) that are the most meaningful to you.

Please give us a call at 440-946-0606
Or visit our website here for more information.


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