How Much Did Your Savings Cost You? (Dallas, TX)

So you saved a nickel on your direct mail program, huh? You should be proud. You saved your company a little change and you deserve your kudos. Or do you?

Here’s the time-tested and proven facts:

• Color sells better than black and white.
• Personalization improves response rates.
• Data segmentation greatly improves response rates.
• Doing all of the above increases the size of the average purchase.
• It increases the frequency of purchases.
• And it improves market perception of your brand.

So you skimped on a few of these items. So what. Mail is mail, right?

Wrong. Do the math.

If the average sale you’re trying to make is $1500 bucks and in your haste to improve your company’s shareholders’ positions (that’s what you were thinking, right?) you knocked a percentage point or two off of the attainable return, well, depending upon how many pieces you mailed you probably only cost the company a handful of sales. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, does it?

Let’s see. You saved $500 dollars by opting for black on colored paper instead of digital color;  for no personalization instead of sending a “valued customer” message; opted for a cold approach instead of familiar and comfortable. Still, $500 dollars is a lot of money. The boss’ll be happy.

Let’s hope!

You mailed 5,000 pieces.  Done properly your mail-piece would realize a 3% response rate, that’s 150 responses. Your sales staff is average and closes 1 out of 3 responses so that’s 50 sales at $1500 each for a total of $75,000 in total revenue.

But you didn’t do everything you could to achieve the attainable return,  you opted for cheap to save a nickel. So you saw a 2% return. That’s 100 responses, 34 closes at $1500 each, netting revenue of $51,000.

Bottom-line: You saved $500 dollars and cost the company $24,000 in lost revenue. Still sound like you did the right thing for the company? Word of caution, don’t mention to your sales reps that your big savings just cost them the commissions on $24,000 of lost sales. They won’t see the wisdom in your savings initiatives.

So, are you going to tell the boss about your big savings now, or nervously hope he doesn’t “do the math”?

Tags: response rates, ROI

Phillip Crum is the Chief Idea Officer of MarketingMeasure and is committed to the idea of helping small business owners do a better job of finding their next customer or client. He and his two sons also own a Sir Speedy Printing franchise and employ those additional capabilities in the overall marketing services menu of offerings. Phillip can be reached at 214-213-7445, or pcrum@MarketingMeasure.com

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Copyright © 2006-2008 Phillip Crum | Comment |  Email This Post

A Little Coffee Wisdom (Dallas, TX)

I like this, so here it is!

A group of alumni, all highly established in their respective careers, got together for a visit with their old university professor. The conversation soon turned to complaints about the endless stress of work and life in general.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went into the kitchen and soon returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal - - some plain, some expensive, some quite exquisite. Quietly he told them to help themselves to some fresh coffee.

When each of his former students had a cup of coffee in hand, the old professor quietly cleared his throat and began to patiently address the small gathering. “You may have noticed that Continue Reading >>

Tags: god, stress

Phillip Crum is the Chief Idea Officer of MarketingMeasure and is committed to the idea of helping small business owners do a better job of finding their next customer or client. He and his two sons also own a Sir Speedy Printing franchise and employ those additional capabilities in the overall marketing services menu of offerings. Phillip can be reached at 214-213-7445, or pcrum@MarketingMeasure.com

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Copyright © 2006-2008 Phillip Crum | Comment |  Email This Post

Print Terminology Dictionary For Print Buyers (Dallas, TX)

While I much prefer to discuss ways to grow your business through marketing strategies or sales techniques, somewhere in the mix somebody’s gotta do some printing! And you gotta know what all those crazy terms mean or you could end up spending a lot of money just to feed the local landfill.

Margie Dana, reigning Queen of print purchasing and champion of downtrodden print buyers everywhere has assembled a bit of a wiki-like affair in an effort to educate the masses; the print buying masses.

Need to look up a term? Don’t wanna look ignorant in front of your print vendor? Your girlfriend? Go check out her latest online addition and feel free to make your own editorial contribution. Doesn’t printing just make you feel all warm and fuzzy?

Tags: offset

Phillip Crum is the Chief Idea Officer of MarketingMeasure and is committed to the idea of helping small business owners do a better job of finding their next customer or client. He and his two sons also own a Sir Speedy Printing franchise and employ those additional capabilities in the overall marketing services menu of offerings. Phillip can be reached at 214-213-7445, or pcrum@MarketingMeasure.com

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Copyright © 2006-2008 Phillip Crum | Comment |  Email This Post