Test Your B2B Direct Mail Offers To Boost Response Rates.
By: Alan Sharpe | Posted: 24th November 2005
The secret to success in business-to-business direct
mail lead generation is testing. I have hunches. You
have hunches. But testing settles the debate. When
you test your package against my package and we
measure the results, we know for certain which
package performed better.
Assuming your list is good (in other words, assuming
you are mailing to people who are likely to buy), the
first thing you should test is your offer. Your offer,
after all, is the second most important ingredient of
direct mail success. And as Axel Andersson says, "If
you want to dramatically increase your results,
dramatically improve your offer."
How do you "dramatically improve your offer?" By
creating an offer that is different from the one you
are using now, and testing both at the same time.
Basically, you mail two packages, one with Offer A
and one with Offer B. You test nothing else. Then
you measure which offer outpulls the other. Here is
how you do it.
Test a hard offer against a soft offer
A hard offer asks for an appointment. A soft offer
invites prospects to request more information (such
as a white paper).
Test a product literature offer against an
educational offer
Product literature includes brochures, catalogs, sales
sheets and technical specification sheets.
Educational offers include white papers, special
reports, books and article reprints.
Test one educational format against
another
Some prospects prefer their information on paper.
Others prefer going online to a special page on your
website. Still others prefer watching a video, or
listening to a CD.
Test offer descriptions
Should you say "Buy two for the price of one"
or "Buy one and get one free?' Test and you'll know.
Test a deadline against no deadline
Giving your potential customer a deadline for
responding might boost response. And it might not.
Test one premium against another
Offer an Apple iPod in one mailer and a Blackberry in
another. Offer a gift certificate to Amazon.com in
one letter and a CD player in another. See what
happens.
In all your tests, remember to test one thing at a
time and to make your tests big. Keep all the other
variables (timing, design, list and so on) the same
while you test just the offer. When I say "make your
tests big" I mean that you should test two very
different offers. If the offers you test are too much
alike, you will not be able to trust your test results.
And that's not just a hunch.
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Tags: prospects, brochures, lead generation, appointment, white papers, catalogs, hunches, test one