What's a good sample size for a mailshot?

[Will S]

Hi,
We have just had a sales letter created by a copywriter with a leaflet that we will be mailing to targeted people across the area that our business covers.

I'm aware that take up on direct mail can be anywhere from 0-5% and was hoping if people with prior experience, would be able to suggest a good sample size of letters to mail to determine whether this is an effective marketing tool for us and to be able to determine if the letter and leaflet are working for us.

Many thanks

 

[quartzdata]

Hi Will,

I would suggest 1000 if budget allows - if not then 500+ to get a reasonable idea of response rate. You should also consider how you choose the test data - probably best to take a random sample, both geographically and using any other information you have. Using the response from the test, then you might be able to determine the most receptive profile of potential customers.

Dependent upon your product/service offering, it may be worth following up a sample with a telephone call to get some genuine feedback.

When scaling up, it is worth considering budget, postal discounts available and your ability to deliver your product/service - can you scale up if successful?

Good luck

Ian

 

[Will S]

We have sent 250 letters this week without any response so far. The call to action included the opportunity to book a free appointment with us in the local area a week Saturday.

We are debating whether to send another 250 to a different area where we are doing an event in a couple of weeks time.

We are only a small startup business and this is quite a costly exercise for us but we were really happy with the sales letter written for us and it seems a shame to not use it again.

At this moment in time we are not keen on going down the telephone call route.

Many thanks for your help.

 

[Martin Leib]

Hi, I have some experience in this and might be able to help.

There is two separate issues here;

1. The letter and leaflet
2. The target area

1. The letter and leaflet.
The problem here is a very frequent and costly one. The Copywriter.
I am a marketer. Do you ask for my advice on cashflow? No. A Copywriter is not trained to care about he content, just the layout of the content. They don't get measured or paid based on the effectiveness of the advert (you haven't mentioned that this is a possibility in your post. This is very courteous of you but costly).
Excuse my bluntness. It is necessary though.

If you want your marketing to be effective, be it a letter or an advert in the newspaper, the content must be relevant and compelling.
Do you know if a free appointment is of value to your potential customers? Is a week on Saturday a good day for them or for you?
You have to look at the content of the letter as if you were the customer, not the business owner or the copywriter. Each one of you are different, but the only one who is relevant is the customer. Your wants or needs won't get any sales. Nor will a Copywriters.

2. The target area
What was the basis for choosing the area you had the letters delivered?
Is it an area with a lot of your potential customers in? Just because your business covers an area doesn't mean there re many customers in that area.
You pick an area to focus on based on it having a high concentration of potential customers in otherwise you get a very poor response.

So, poor content and poor selection of area - was it one or both f these that caused the poor result. Well, 250 is a low volume and 1000 would be much better but extrapolating from results so far, this your ROI doesn't look good.

The solution - the 3 steps of effective marketing

There are 3 steps in the process of getting more customers. I have sold many things in to many industries; on the phone, face to face and using the internet, and it is a process just like making a cake.


Step 1 is to define what each of your segments 'look like' - what the demographics of them are.
Understanding that you have multiple 'target markets' is key.
It may be that you can split your target markets, or segments, by using age or income level or geographic factors. Age, Race, Education, Income, Ethnicity, Geographic location are all factors you can use - you know which ones are relevant and which aren't, so use your knowledge and create at least 3 separate segments. You may have already done this, but it is good to review frequently.

Step 2 is about understanding 'Where' your target market is.
'Where' - physically or electronically - your target markets go when they want to research, look at, try and buy your products.
How do you get this information? Ask them.
A simple questionnaire will cover everything you need to know for his step and the next.
With the knowledge that they give you, you will be able to choose which type of advert, which venue or event and which method of marketing (telemarketing, direct mail, Google ads, leaflet drops) is most applicable and relevant to your target markets.

Right, so now you know Who your target markets are, and you know Where to put them, physically and electronically, so your adverts are effective.

Step 3 is the final part - the Content.
This can be the wording of an advert, the 'Elevator Pitch' you say when you first meet a potential customer or your website content - whatever the medium for selling.
By asking, in the questionnaire, what is important when it comes to buying your products, what they feel once they have bought your product or service (as emotions are the strongest motivator is any sale) and what they perceive the benefits are, you will then be able to use these answers as the content.
This means you have very relevant and compelling reasons why someone would want to buy your product.

Put these three steps together and you know Who and Where your target markets are and What to say to motivate them to buy from you. This includes increasing traffic to your website or to a show.

Unsurprisingly, this takes a little work to do, but just follow the steps and you can have your cake and eat it.

I don't take on clients, but I am happy to help so email me if you want further help with specifics of the questionnaire etc martinATtheseatDOTcoDOTuk (I can't put email addresses or links into posts just yet)

Hope this helps

By Martin Leib

 

[Alan]

Very good advice above. I will take that onboard myself.

Just from a numbers point of view 250 isn't a big enough sample to test your ROI.

You already know that the range is 0-5% conversion.

Reality (obviously skills / process above can change this) is it is likely to be 0.5%

So a sample of 250 may get you 1 or zero or 2, but the sample size is too small to draw a conclusion from. You could have accidentally got 10 from your first 250 and think that you are getting 4% and make decisions on that , never to achieve that again.

In my mind you need to test with at least 1,000 to see what your conversion rates are.

 

[S-Marketing]

Will, what line of business are you in?

 

[Will S]

The targeted addresses were from Experian using their Mosaic database. The letters were sent to people who fall into the "Active Retirement" group which is our target market.

Martin, many thanks for your advice which is really helpful. I will take this on board going forward.

 

[Will S]

We are in the private Hearing Care business

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

We are only a small startup business and this is quite a costly exercise for us but we were really happy with the sales letter written for us and it seems a shame to not use it again.

It's all about results. The copywriter should produce a letter for you which works, otherwise he/she hasn't done their job properly.

Mind you, the copy is only as good as the offer you've included. We can't work magic!

 

[annavissi]

have you used social media channels to spread your information? The research says that it helps to achieve target audience faster and with higher response rate! I have proved it myself.

 

[annavissi]

I wouldn't use paper correspondence at all - 95% goes to the bin even if it's a good one.. try e-marketing..

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

95% goes to the bin even if it's a good one

It always amuses me when people make statistics up out of thin air.

 

[Elliottc26]

1. The letter and leaflet.
The problem here is a very frequent and costly one. The Copywriter.
I am a marketer. Do you ask for my advice on cashflow? No. A Copywriter is not trained to care about he content, just the layout of the content. They don't get measured or paid based on the effectiveness of the advert (you haven't mentioned that this is a possibility in your post. This is very courteous of you but costly).
Excuse my bluntness. It is necessary though.

If you want your marketing to be effective, be it a letter or an advert in the newspaper, the content must be relevant and compelling.
Do you know if a free appointment is of value to your potential customers? Is a week on Saturday a good day for them or for you?
You have to look at the content of the letter as if you were the customer, not the business owner or the copywriter. Each one of you are different, but the only one who is relevant is the customer. Your wants or needs won't get any sales. Nor will a Copywriters.

Are you serious? Can you provide evidence of this nonsense? If the copywriter here is amateur, unfortunately that is money wasted.

If the Copywriter is professional, then it's all about:

• The Content
• The Audience
• The Purpose
• The Context

Not trained to think about the content? I was, and all about techniques, structures, sales techniques, etc., and all about winning leads. I know about Marketing and PR, as well as writing in different forms all for the results and good of the client. Research is all part of the service.

The OP:

Without seeing what you have and knowing your targets, it's hard to comment. But, if the offer is an appointment on a Saturday - one day only - you may struggle to get results if that's not how the target works, or is too short notice, etc.,. Are you sending it to people who even want what you're selling? There's many factors to consider.

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

1. The letter and leaflet.
The problem here is a very frequent and costly one. The Copywriter.
I am a marketer. Do you ask for my advice on cashflow? No. A Copywriter is not trained to care about he content, just the layout of the content. They don't get measured or paid based on the effectiveness of the advert (you haven't mentioned that this is a possibility in your post. This is very courteous of you but costly).
Excuse my bluntness. It is necessary though.

If you want your marketing to be effective, be it a letter or an advert in the newspaper, the content must be relevant and compelling.
Do you know if a free appointment is of value to your potential customers? Is a week on Saturday a good day for them or for you?
You have to look at the content of the letter as if you were the customer, not the business owner or the copywriter. Each one of you are different, but the only one who is relevant is the customer. Your wants or needs won't get any sales. Nor will a Copywriters.

I would suggest that you go and look up the definition of "copywriter", as you clearly have no idea what we do.

Don't care about content? Good grief. Content is 95% of what we focus on. We're here to make adverts, websites and marketing as effective as possible from a sales perspective by doing pretty much everything you've mentioned in your post.

Someone who is trained to care mostly about the layout is called a graphic designer.

 

[Alan]

I wouldn't use paper correspondence at all - 95% goes to the bin even if it's a good one.. try e-marketing..

These findings are from Target Marketing’s Sixth Annual Media Usage Forecast which surveyed 350+ marketers.

“ For customer acquisition, direct mail (34%) topped email (25%), search engine marketing (10%), and affiliate marketing (8%), with 23% of respondents citing a variety of other channels.”

 

[Mark Pocock]

In order of importance it goes;

1. Offer
2. List
3. Copy

What is your offer?

I think your approach is wrong.

Is your piece going to people who have hearing problems?

Do a 2 step approach.

Write a special report. Advertise the report. Those people who
ask for the report are your hot prospects.

Why not paste what your copywriter wrote here?
You'll soon get some feedback.

warmly

Mark

 

[Phil Richardson]

I wouldn't use paper correspondence at all - 95% goes to the bin even if it's a good one.. try e-marketing..

I always find comments like this that add absolutely no value to the discussion are posted by people who have no understanding of marketing or lead generation.

I have been hearing of the death of mail since the invention of email, i'm now hearing of the death of email since the invention of social marketing. And don't get me started on the death of telesales.

A good marketer will look at their target market and use multiple channels to terget them which may well include email, mail, online, social etc.

OP can you post a copy of the letter so we can read it, I know you will get 25 different views but it could provide interesting feedback.

Personally for a B2C letter I would want a sample of at least 1000 if not more though I do understand that postage costs are a factor.

Have you thought about door drops if postage costs are a factor, it's something i've never tried but could be an idea if you are targetting a specific geographic area.

 

[Deleted member 66528]

The targeted addresses were from Experian using their Mosaic database. The letters were sent to people who fall into the "Active Retirement" group which is our target market.

Martin, many thanks for your advice which is really helpful. I will take this on board going forward.

have you used social media channels to spread your information? The research says that it helps to achieve target audience faster and with higher response rate! I have proved it myself.

Target market = Active retired

Advice = Social Media????

You have to share with us who you "proved it" to in that age group.

 

[Force Digital]

1. Check the list you are sending to is current and very well targeted - when was it put together? Is it a list you purchased or gathered yourself?

2. Call ten people from the list at random - do they still live there, did they get your mailing, would it be of interest?

3. Put the letter on here for some feedback make some changes (to the letter and the list if necessary) and try a different area