SMART BLAST

The whole point of having a “control” package (a direct mail piece or package that you know works, so you continue to use it) is gaining the ability to maintain your results while testing new options.

So why not try it?

If you’re a marketer who makes routine mailings to your customers and is interested in testing something new – but you aren’t sure where to start and don’t want to spend tons of money, you’re in luck. Change doesn’t have to be complicated.

Sometimes all you have to do is alter something simple and your response will increase, if only because it stands out and catches your customer’s eye as something new in their mailbox.

For instance, one company we know regularly mails 300,000-piece postcard mailings, and the response is consistent – about .19%. Then they increased the paper weight of the postcard from a heavy text to a cover weight, and their response rate jumped .05%.

To the unsuspecting person, .05% doesn’t sound like much. But think of it this way: if a new purchase for you is worth $1,000, and you just gained 150 new responses, that’s potentially $150,000 in new purchases that you didn’t have before.

That sounds a little sweeter, doesn’t it?

And paper weight is just one of a myriad of small things you can change. Do you regularly send blue mailers? Try testing red ones. Do you send standard single-sheet postcards? Try making it a tri-fold tabbed self-mailer that fits in the same postage category.

See what I mean?

Keep that control package if you know it works. But seize the opportunity to spice things up a bit and see if you can do even better.