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Direct Mail Response Rates
Posted By: jo* on 6/17/2005 7:07 AM (CST) 125 Points
What are the average response rates to direct mail campaigns quoted as at the moment?

Is there anything specific to the test and measurement industry?

Many thanks
Jo

Posted by: asiavoss* Accepted Answer
6/17/2005 8:55 AM (CST)
My industry is Office Products, and 99% of our bsuiness comes from direct mail marketing.

We see a 1% response rate when mailing to Prospects or inactive customers.

It's closer to 2% when we mail a 'special offer' to existing customers. (like a big sale on a specific products line).

I hope this helps a little...
 
Posted by: Pepper Blue Accepted Answer
6/17/2005 10:43 AM (CST)
Hey Jo,

This is from http://www.directmag.com:

The average response rate for the 1,122 industry-specific campaigns that the DMA studied was 2.61%.

Within sectors, nonprofit fundraisers enjoy the most success with direct response, getting rates of 5.35%. Close behind are retail stores (with 3.36%) and establishments selling services to businesses (3.34%).

Manufacturing delivers 3.17%; personal and repair services 3.07%; and travel 2.98%. The two sectors at the bottom of the list — computer/electronic products and packaged goods — still get better than 2% response.

I don't think you are going to find anything published on the test and measurement industry, you would be better off asking some other people in the industry and creating your own benchmark.

I hope that helps.
 
Posted by: londongirl Accepted Answer
6/17/2005 1:22 PM (CST)
It depends on your target audience and the offer. I have had anything from 10% response rate (highly targeted offer to CPAs) to 0.2% (blanket dm to small/med businesses without an offer). That's my 2 cents - Pepper Blue's answer is much more useful!
 
Posted by: skoobie99 Accepted Answer
6/17/2005 1:30 PM (CST)
I've been told that a good rule-of-thumb is that 2-3% response rate signifies a successful campaign.

I can't argue with the statistics presented by Pepper Blue. In light of your industry and depending on how targeted your list of recipients might be, I would likely be happy with a 1-2% response rate.

Hope this helps,
John
 
Posted by: Jo Masterson Accepted Answer
6/18/2005 12:27 AM (CST)
Hello,

Typical responses I know of from general mailing lists are around .5-1% (max). The more targeted the list, and the better the offer the better the response rates. We hope for 5% response from a very targeted list.

Sending to the same list over and over will increase name/brand recognition and usually improves response rate. Make sure the ROI considering the product costs, printing costs, postage costs, any discount offered… work out positively. I say hit a smaller targeted list repetitively over a large general list with one big campaign.

Good Luck,
Jo
 
Posted by: mgoodman Accepted Answer
6/19/2005 11:26 PM (CST)
In general, I've always figured 0.5-1.0% is a good starting point. As others have said, if you have a very targeted list (like current customers, for example), then 2-3% is probably not totally unreasonable.

The real issue isn't what the industry average is, it's how good your mailing is. How attractive is the offer? How compelling is the communication? How important is the underlying need you're addressing?

Be very careful when you look at averages. The average temperature in the world might be 60 degrees (F), but you can still get frostbite or sunburn when you go outside, depending where you are and what season it is.
 
Posted by: carter* Accepted Answer
6/21/2005 5:59 PM (CST)
I have been averaging a 30% response over the past year. I can show you how to do it (note, this is not a sales pitch) if you are interested. I would write it here but who has all day to sit and share?
 
Posted by: C Campbell* Accepted Answer
6/23/2005 5:49 PM (CST)
Ditto to mgoodman...hard to tell and based GREATLY on your industry. Don't make the all too frequent mistake of simply putting out DM to tell how great you are, your location, % off, etc. You MUST put a legitimate and immediate call to action in the form of a very professional (and oversized if possible) letter to a highly targeted audience. Not to be harsh...but...do not even plan to allocate $$$ to DM if you don't know your audience well and are not willing to do the upfront mailing list work. A great DM piece is effective (maybe even very effective!) but all of the other stuff...well, that's why they call it junk mail. Hope this helps and happy DM-ing!
 
Posted by: carrie77 Moderator Response
7/1/2005 10:23 AM (CST)
Hello all. I am closing this question since there has been no activity in over a week. We do this to reward the contributions of participants in a timely manner + to give increased visibility to the newer questions.

Thanks for participating!
Carrie (Production Editor)
 
Posted by: brontomatt Member Response
9/20/2006 10:47 PM (CST)
Carter is an idiot. Everyone is claiming 1%-5% open rates, which maps to what the DMA reports year in and year out.

Carter is getting 30%, has time to post it, and time to take a call, but no time to "sit and share"

I repeat: Carter is an idiot.
 
Posted by: greeko125* Member Response
10/14/2008 1:03 AM (CST)
I'm interested in Carter's 30% response rate too!!
Please come and share how to do that!
 
Posted by: schulte Member Response
3/4/2009 9:57 PM (CST)
The DMA 2009 Response Rate Trends Report has the information you need for all types of direct marketing promotions. http://www.nmoa.org/catalog/dma/dma_response.htm
 


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