"Same Old, Same Old" Still Works Wonders
Welcome back! It’s that time of year when summer holidays are over and most of us settle back into our regular work routines and start thinking about our fall advertising campaigns.
We hope that every direct marketing campaign that we work on will be enormously successful. To this end, we try to share tips and suggestions with clients whenever we can. What we plan to look at today is based on marketing fundamentals and actual results. It may appear self-serving in one sense, but we will be covering a key ingredient for success that is often overlooked, frequently resulting in poorer overall results.
I can’t count the number of times that I have seen the Blinds To Go commercial where Antoine keeps interrupting the speaker. Can’t say that it’s my favourite commercial, but I sure won’t forget it.
No business likes to spend more money then they have to, and I expect that Blinds To Go is no exception. So then, why are there so many repetitions of the same commercial? Well, I think we all know the answer. It’s so you will remember them the next time that you are in the market for blinds. Yes, I have gone to Blinds To Go when looking for blinds and, if you have one of their stores in your region, it’s likely that you have as well.
Repetition is critically important in any type of advertising, and direct marketing is no exception. Interestingly, when we work with seasoned marketers and advertising agencies on unaddressed campaigns, they will often mail the same (or similar) piece three times into the same target area. This is not simply to line the pockets of Canada Post, printers and mail service providers. It is to ensure that the message is received – and that it sticks.
We also see a lot of one-shot wonders, where a mailer sends out a single “vanilla” piece expecting that the phones will ring off the hook. I liken these mailings to the one-hit wonders in golf. This is where we tee up a new ball and swing blindly in hopes that we have crushed it 300 yards, only to pop it up or slice it into some nearby corn field.
Assuming that an advertising piece gets attention, generates interest, creates desire and has a call to action, it should generate responses after a few repetitions. There is no doubt that some extraordinary pieces with highly desired products or services and compelling offers may work with fewer or even perhaps a single drop, but as noted above, experience shows that repetition is a key factor in virtually all types of advertising.
So, if you’ve tried a single mail drop that didn’t seem to work, consider trying something different next time. Rather than doing a single drop of say 9,000 pieces, why not try 3 drops of 3,000 pieces to the same audience, at two or three week intervals. Provided your message combines the key ingredients noted above, you might be very surprised at the increased response rates.
We wish you great success with your fall direct marketing campaigns. If we can help in any way, we would welcome the opportunity to chat with you.
