JicMail, the body that collects data about the effectiveness of direct mail, has published a proof of concept study expanding its consumer reported data to creating benchmarking data for campaign effectiveness.
This has been published as the Response Rate Tracker report, taking data from 1,017 campaigns across direct mail and door drops aiming to “provide greater clarity and transparency” about the effectiveness of direct mail. To this end the report divides the types or recipient into warm and cold, where one is building on an existing relationship while the other is about customer acquisition.
Unsurprisingly the warm direct mail achieved a greater response rate, some 10.9%, than cold communication achieving a 1% response. Combined the response rate averaged at 5.1%.
This consistent with JicMail’s own reports which depends on a panel of consumers filling in questionnaires about attitudes to direct mail. It finds that 9.5% respond when receiving warm direct mail, 5.6% as an average overall score.
Most (93%) of the campaigns assessed had used direct mail, the remainder used doorstops. Retail campaigns dominated with 83% classified in this way. The campaigns were split 59:41 in favour of warm communication.
As the report states, this achieves a greater response and therefore a greater ROI, “practitioners should be wary of simply regarding warm mail as a more effective channel than cold mail however. No brand grows without acquiring new customers, and understanding the effectiveness of the mail channel in driving acquisitions is critical to campaign planning efforts. A 1% response rate of cold mail compares favourably to that seen by many other channels. A blend of warm and cold is therefore critical to success”.
The first report is considered a pilot to check that the methodology, using a tracker code to measure response rates, is valid. Some changes will be made before a second report, but JicMail is happy with the research and happy that the findings validate its own work. It is the report says: “A robust and credible way for measuring campaign centric response rates.”
JicMail’s engagement director Mark Cross says: “These new response metrics are the start of what will become a growing pool of essential benchmarks and reference points for all campaign planners. They starkly exceed conventional digital response metrics and add a valuable layer to existing JicMail data, together creating new discussions on how performance can be improved through the inclusion of mail in the omnichannel mix.”
