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The importance of testing in direct marketing

By Social Small Biz on March 8, 2010

This is a guest post from Tim Little, Publisher, MarketingListBroker.com

The “measurement ability” of direct marketing is such an important element that the word “testing” is commonly used.  Few marketers test but the ones that do will see their results skyrocket. For example, testing your internal customer lists by the most current customers that joined your list or segmenting by the frequency or amount of purchase.

“I’ve got a list to write” is said by everyone because each one of us compiles lists, for example friends in Facebook, Twitter, Outlook contact lists as well of lists of favorite songs, cell phone numbers, and books.

Prospecting for new customers is a science as far as list selection is concerned and measurement of response is absolutely essential because this is a field unique among all fields in marketing. Only test one element at a time in your list selection to determine what is working and what isn’t.

Understanding Direct Response

The difference between success and failure can be something as small as a fraction in 1% of a 100,000 mail or email blast.

Why Test?

  • To determine which activities will produce more conversions
  • To determine which activities will produce less conversions

There is never an end to testing in direct marketing since everything is always changing. There are some basic ways to improve response when testing:

  • Increase response per thousand
  • Increase average sale
  • Increase order margin
  • Decrease the cost to mail
  • Decrease the cost for fulfillment

The rules to consider when planning a mail campaign:

  • Always split every mailing that is meaningful to you, test a group of new lists by demographic data
  • Only test one element at a time in a series of experiments
  • Concentrate tests first on markets (lists) and then offers
  • Do not set a price for the market – the price is the single most important element in the offer, let the market decide on price by testing
  • In split testing, test prices both high and low where you think the market will determine the right price for you.
  • Always remember it is better to send a poor mailing to a good list than a good mailing to a poor list

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