There are so many ways to develop direct marketing success. One thing I’ve noticed is that many clients that I work with will re-mail to the same database many times. The trick to finding out how much new data you need is pretty simple.
The first step is of course tracking. Make sure you can follow the success of a ‘new list’ verses and ‘old list’. Depending on how big of an expense your database is, re-mail until the cost of a new list is less than the expense of your cost per call.
In otherwords, if it costs you $75 to create a phone call on a new list and $95 the second time around and $105 the third time, purchase a new database on the 4th mailer if the cost of the new data backs out to less than $30 per call. This is common sense but you can also let a database ‘rest’ and remail to it. Often you will see patterns surrounding a year long cycle.
Many direct marketers work on a yearly schedule and they will know when the best time to mail is. Make sure if you are doing a mailing for the first time that you consult with several sources and manage your budget closely.
One way to manage your budget is to set up an R&D direct marketing budget and work on small projects that will test a larger universe. By testing in a small controlled environment you can see the results and their magnitude without staffing up or wasting money on an excellent idea or a half baked concepts. I learned early on in this industry that it’s better to get the bad ideas out early and really shape the good ones by testing.
