<p>Every direct marketing campaign is an opportunity to test and learn – and then apply what you have learned to make the next campaign even better.</p>
<p>For planning direct mail campaigns, I follow these steps.</p>
<p>Step 1, ID. Identify goals<br />Step 2, Setup. Setup campaigns to meet/exceed those goals<br />Step 3, Execute. Deploy campaigns<br />Step 4, Measure. Analyze results and apply what you have learned<br />Repeat. Apply what you learn and repeat Steps 1-4 for closed loop marketing campaigns</p>
<p>To test, measure and learn from direct marketing campaign, I use the <a title=”4 Tips that apply to All Direct Marketing” href=”https://outdoorretailerdirect.com/4-tips-that-apply-to-all-direct-marketing/” target=”_blank”>Four R’s for direct marketing</a> as a guide.</p>
<p>- Audience: Segment by demographic profile &/or behavior. Learn how different segments respond<br />- Messaging/offers: Vary calls to action and learn the cost/benefit of each<br />- Timing: Test different lead dates and frequencies for pre/post events, purchases or announcements. Measure and compare campaign performance<br />- Creative: Test different media. Different media provides a different customer engagement, be it email, direct mail or telemarketing or any combination</p>
<p>Whether you have resources for predictive scoring, regression modeling or multivariate data sets or you just want to send a promotional letter to your customer list, I believe these basic tips can be applied to any campaign. I use them to keep my focus. I hope you find them useful as well.</p>
