The first step in ensuring that your direct mail advertising piece is relevant to its recipients is to target those consumers who are most likely to shop at your store. More than any other medium, direct mail allows you to target your advertising effectively and affordably. And, by using shared mail, in which your ad is combined with others for maximal postal savings, you can even further lower your cost per response. In order to influence consumers' behavior through advertising, you need to reach them when their search for furniture is underway. This is a challenge.
Consumers shop for furniture relatively infrequently.
In fact, a recent survey of over 1,000 furniture shoppers conducted by NPD's HTI Consumer Panel for ADVO, Inc., found that on average, consumers make a major furniture purchase only once every four years. First, because our survey shows that the average furniture buyer takes 5 weeks to buy once they start looking, you can reach these primed prospects multiple times while they're most receptive. Multiple exposure is important for an advertiser. In fact, the Direct Marketing Association has found that consumer response rates to an ad increase significantly with each exposure. Second, for those consumers who are not currently in the market, having seen your repeated advertising will have created top of mind awareness for your store once they do start looking for that new dining room set.