subject: Measurement Of Direct Marketing Campaigns [print this page] Marketing professionals and the companies they represent are all trying to figure out how to measure the latest marketing tactics - from direct mail to social media.
Today measuring means direct mail, advertising, and public relations along with all the new digital marketing tactics like blogs, email advertising and Facebook, and Twitter -- all of which are merging with traditional direct marketing.
Basically direct marketing results can be measured by three methods that will enable you to know which of your marketing campaigns is really working to increase your sales and return on investment. These methods include:
1. Cost per acquisition; 2. Cost-per-piece; and 3. The response rate.
Cost per piece is simply determined when you take your total cost of mailing the postcards and then dividing it by the number of pieces you actually sent out. Note that when you decrease your cost per piece, you also get to lessen your cost per acquisition. However, you must have the same response rate.
Cost per acquisition is key because it helps you to determine whether getting new leads for your business is worth the cost it's going to be to generate them. This is the most common measuring tool that determines the effectiveness of a marketing campaign, which might include a direct marketing campaign with a full color postcard printing and mailing to a target list of potential customers. Cost per acquisition means the result of having your target clients respond to your postcard. This is determined quantitatively by dividing the total cost of mailing the postcards, by the number of responses received.
Measuring the response rate for a direct marketing campaign means you can easily calculate the result by dividing the number of people who actually responded to the campaign with the number of people you sent the direct mail piece to. This response rate measurement is important as you can predict early on the success or failure of your direct marketing campaign, whether you choose full color postcard printing or envelope printing for that matter.
Direct marketing can be more scientific, and you also get to quantify results, making it easy for you to decide on the best marketing campaign to effect. But keep in mind, only one in 10 prospects are truly ready to buy.
According to a recent research report by MarketingSherpa. The others may just be looking around, but they'll be ready to buy in the next 24 months, so in order to win their business, these hot leads need to be reminded so when they are ready to buy, your company will be the one they remember.
