If anyone is ever interested in seeking my advice on where to start with email and direct mail advertising, I always give the same thought: start with the most expensive list and work down.
This can seem counter-intuitive – but there is a logic in the thought.
To explain: in direct mail there are two main options for reaching teachers – solo mail and shared mail. Solo mail costs around 45p per school, while shared mail costs around 7p per school. (Prices do depend on a variety of factors so please don’t take any prices here as a statement of the exact price.)
My view is very clearly that one should start with a small mailing (maybe 300 schools) using the solo mailing. I appreciate that shared is cheaper, but solo gets the better response rate. The simple fact is that if you can’t get a decent level of sales out of a solo mailing, you are unlikely to do so with a shared mailing.
The same applies with regards to email. The most responsive list is the Subscribers list – teachers who have asked to have mailings sent to them. Sales rates on these email lists can reach towards the same level as solo mailings, and so they should be tried first. Again, if you are not getting a decent response rate with a mailing to a subscribers list, you are not going to get a good response to a mailing using a general school list.
True, a subscriber list is incomplete (not every teacher in a subject will subscribe) and is around four times the cost of a general school list.
But this is still a perfect way of finding out if you mailing can work. A modest investment using a subscriber list will tell you if the advert works. If it does you can move down the chain to the cheaper but less responsive lists. If not, then the best investment is to spend time rewriting the advert and then trying again.
Here’s the order of activity that I would always recommend.
Direct mail: use a trial solo mailing first, then if that works mail all schools in your sector (ie all secondary schools, or whatever is appropriate) with a solo mailing. After that experiment with shared mailings. (There is more on shared mailings at www.shared.org.uk )
Email: Start with a subscription list. If that works (or if there is no subscription list available for your subject) move on to a Personal List (that is teachers at their own email address), then the Preference List (the school address with the name of the teacher stripped into the subject line) and then finally the general school list. Each list gets bigger, but the unit cost goes down. There are details of the various types of email list at http://www.yesmail.org.uk/Schools.html
The contrary view
Approaching mailing the other way round – by starting with the cheapest option first – is a much more common approach. It springs from the notion that one will just spend a little money to begin with, and then if that works invest a bit more.
What this approach ignores is the fact that with the more expensive (but also more responsive) lists such as subscriber emails and solo direct mail, it is possible to do quite small sized mailings as a test run. Thus the risk of loss from an advert that doesn’t work is kept small, at the same time as giving the advert every chance to work.
Consider this – first for direct mail
a) A trial solo mailing to 300 schools might cost around £130
b) A shared mailing to 5000 schools might cost around £400
And then for email
a) An email using a subscriber list 900 heads of sixth form might cost around £140
b) An email to 3500 heads of sixth form on a general school list might cost around £200
In each case the first option has a higher unit price, and gains a higher response rate – but it can be run as a trial mailing to see if the advert works. If advert a) works one can move on to other options, but if it does not it is much better to work out why, rather than just jump to another, less responsive list.
Of course I would never hide from the fact that there can be exceptions and special cases, and I can’t cover them all here. But if you would like to discuss this with myself, or my colleagues, please do give me a call on 01536 399 000.
Tony Attwood