From: duxbury@fraser.sfu.ca (Nancy Ann Duxbury)
Subject: Re: Mailing Lists vs Magazine Advertisements
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 18:22:12 GMT

In article <lav1mvINNsln@aludra.usc.edu> moghal@aludra.usc.edu (Nadeem Moghal) writes:

>This brings me to an important question: Is it a good idea to 
>flood people with your direct-mail letters before a major occasion
>like christmas? I don't mean immediately prior to it, but. say,
>a month or so. Are there any positive/negative apects of it that
>I should be aware of?

  I think it's a good idea in theory, because, depending on your
product, that's the general time people are ready to buy. However,
it's important to develop a direct-mail package that will stand out
among the others, so people will read it. If you're after the
Christmas market, it's also vital that you assure your prospects of
delivery by Xmas.

>Alright. Here is the main part od my question. I hope someone 
>would be kind enough to suggest a few answers.
>
>   An Ad in a magazine like Popular Science costs at least $125
>   (for a smallest possible size). But it goes to a very large
>   multitude of prospective buyers. Even if half a percent of
>   those think favorably, you'd be talking of thousands of 
>   prospects.
>
>   Direct-mail, on the other hand, goes only to the people you
>   choose. Let's see how much it'd cost to mail the letter to
>   say, 5000 addresses:
>
>        mailing list  ~ 200   (is this a safe estimate?)
>        Postage (@.29) 1450   It goes for one-third under
>                              the special permit, but is it
>                              recommended? It LOOKS junk!
>        Printing/
>             Packaging  250
>
>           TOTAL       1900
>
>   Add to this the time you'd have to spend in labelling the letters,
>   stuffing the envelopes and mailing them. Some headache it would
>   definitely be!
>
>   And, the response is generally between 3-5% (am I right?) which
>   comes to 150-250. And depending upon the product, this would
>   barely break even.

Direct mail can be tricky sometimes. If you have an attractive package
and a mailing list, that often is not enough. What you need for
success in direct mail is an attractive package, a good product, and a
HIGHLY-TARGETED, ACCURATE mailing list. If you think your market is
the crowd that reads Popular Science, then there's a mailing list to
go after. Even better, you might want to pursue a list of Popular
Science subscribers that have used mail order before. The downside:
it's expensive. (I couldn't even begin to give you an estimate.)

Magazine ads are great because they allow you target specific interest
groups for a reasonably lower price. However, like direct mail, your
ad has to be interesting enough to be read before it will get any
response. A $125 miniscule ad that goes out to 200,000 people is not
necessarily going to be read by even half of them. If your ad doesn't
get read, you won't get a response. It's probably possible to design a
good $125 ad for a publication. However, it's tough.

>So, on the basis of this comparison, magazine ad would seem a very 
>good alternative. 
>
>Is there anything that I have missed out?

In short, it's a matter of creating attractive copy and delivering it
to the people most likely to buy your high-quality product. There is a
very good article on combining advertising, direct mail, and follow-up
calls in this month's Inc. magazine. I would recommend it.

>Thanks a lot.

Hope this helps. :-)

Bill Currie
duxbury@sfu.ca