Does it make sense to send a second or third mailing to the same target audience?
Intuitively, repeat mailings make sense. It’s just logical to expect that if you mail to the same person a second or third time, you will increase your exposure to that prospect and you will improve your chances for a response.
But is this the most effective way to conduct your direct mail program?
Maybe, but not necessarily.
Experience shows that second mailings typically produce a fraction of the response from the original mailing. And a third mailing produces an even smaller fraction.
For example, if your first mailing generated a 2% response rate, your second mailing might produce a 1% followed by a third mailing response rate of 0.5%.
Clearly what happens here is that you grab all the hot leads with the first mailing. The follow-up mailings merely pick up those you missed the first time or those who weren’t ready at the time.
So yes, a follow-up mailing will produce more responses, but at a diminishing response rate.
A different strategy would be to continually mail to fresh names with each mailing and therefore (again hypothetically) generate a response rate of 2%, 2%, 2% and so on.
Of course, this strategy requires a relatively large target audience. As an example, if you had a target audience of 50,000 contacts (assuming the same profile from the same source), you could produce five mailings of 10,000 each – and probably maintain a consistent response rate across the board.
When repeat mailings make sense
Repeat mailings can be a good strategy under the right conditions, however.
If you are using the mail to keep your name in front of a small, pre-qualified target audience, you could create a series of letters, postcards or other mailers that go out on a scheduled basis as part of a brand-building campaign.
In this scenario, your mailings would be part of a multi-touch strategy that may also include telephone, email and maybe even a personal visit.
Typically, these repeat mailings would have a common theme but may include different messages, creative or offers. Mailings would be scheduled about every two weeks.
But a word of caution: make sure everyone understands that this is more of a brand-building exercise with less emphasis on the response rate.