Direct Mail is a highly effective way to get interested prospects buying your products or services. The conversion percentage is substantially higher compared to other marketing methods such as: Internet Leads, Live Transfer Leads, Radio/TV Leads, etc. The reasoning behind this is due to the filters that you can generate with a highly targeted mailing list. Having managed mail campaigns for over 7 years now, I have seen pretty much every response rate you could imagine. Typically you can expect .25% to 1% response rate when dealing with direct mail. The range depends on a couple factors.
Obviously, the appearance of the mailer is a key component to the response rate in addition to the offer itself. This ensures that your mailer is actually opened by the potential prospect. Statistically, mailers have an open ratio of 25%. I produce and utilize mailers that elicit an 80% open ratio. This means that 80% of the potential prospects that receive the mailer open it. This improves response rate by 4 times.
Another critical factor with direct mail is the Data! If you have inaccurate data it can cut your results tremendously. Data is the most crucial part of a mail campaign. Please be sure you do your research on the company you get your data from. Everyone will tell you that they have credit bureau data that is 100% accurate. Keep in mind that there are a lot of companies that will offer the “To good to be true” data set and 9 times out 10 it is. Be careful that the data is really a credit bureau data set and not a bootleg data set sold 500 times. I go as far as only using the data that comes from the company that does my mailers. This way you can put it right back on them. You used their mailer and their data and the results were not up to par. You only have one person to blame. Which brings me to my next point.
Everyone can go to a wholesale mail house. Everyone has the cheapest price in the book. You can do your own mailers and save some money. But at the end of the day whats more important? Saving a little money or making a ton of money. That is the difference between a mail house or printer and a Marketing/Advertising Agency. The Marketing/Advertising agency specializes in getting results!!! If not everyone would go around the agency directly to a mail house. Don’t step over dollars for pennies! Make sure you are working with a marketer not a mailer.
Over several years of experience managing direct mail campaigns from Life Insurance and Auto Warranty to Cash Advance, Mortgage, and Debt Settlement, I have never seen a response rate as high as the Loan Modification Industry sees. On average the Loan Modification Industry is seeing 2% to 6% response rate on the amount of mailers sent out. This is incredible!!!
Typically, Direct mail has a more expensive lead cost than the other mediums. Can you say “Not Today Junior!!” Right now you can average a lead cost of $10-$25 for a Loan Modification Inbound Lead! The conversion on a call like this is 20% to 30% depending on the Company and Sales Rep taking the call. If you are in the Loan Modification Industry and you are not capitalizing on a response like this than you have to say “Your Crazy”. I mean this in the most helpful way. Don’t wait. There is not time to wait. Loan Modifications will not be around for a very long time. It is expected to last only a quarter of the time that the Mortgage Boom experienced. So get in on the mailers and send as many as you can. Your business is sure to flourish at a rate you never thought possible. The longer you wait, the more that your competition is growing resulting in more mailers that get sent out offering Loan Modifications. This response will definitely not be around for long. We will see the day that this response drops back to normal levels for direct mail. Sooner than Later!!!
