Anyone doing mailings different from the standard 30/60/90 day ones?
I’ve seen some good results direct mailing everyone from “active” customers to those so lazy as to be considered “dead” - like as much as two-years inactive. So I’m starting to think that in addition to (or instead of) doing the standard stuff, that maybe an effective method might be 180/270/360 mailings to hit some 30-day blocks way out in the past. I just mailed everyone in our small-town market that hadn’t ordered in 360-720 days and we had a really nice surge in sales until Spring Break derailed it… “stoopid holidays!” Next month I’m going to mail everyone that’s been inactive for 2-3 years.
Is anyone else getting good results from non-standard mailing timings? If so, where are your “sweet spots?”
Last year at this time, I mailed everyone who had not ordered for the previous year and Jan, Feb and March. The offer was for a large 1 top. Pick up only. I sent out almost 1400. I had 2 of the hightest weeks ever just after that. Of course my food cost was terrible but the labor was good. I had about a 16% return.
The only thing I would do different would be to have an option that if they wanted delivery, I would offer bogo free. I had maybe a dozen people get mad because I would not deliver a free pizza to them.
A lot of people would order an additional pizza or side item. Some just got the free pizza and left. While others would add to their 1 top.
I think it would be a great idea to try. Remember…our job is to get the customer to come BACK and order again from us. Usually this means a simple reminder of who we are and where we are.
We mailed about 3,500 to that market - of those, 800 were the customers that hadn’t ordered in the one-two year timeframe. At the moment, we are only sending out postcards with our package deal (pizza, sticks, 2 drinks - one price) to everyone. It’s really hard to judge what the exact response is because our POS system’s database is just plain awful (man does it blow), but in the week following a mailing we typically see a 5% increase in overall sales. These last two mailings hitting older customers have seen a 10% surge in sales and a 33% jump in the number of package deals ordered.
I wish I had better numbers to work off of instead of just a “gut feel”… perhaps someone with decent database tools can try some laziest-customer mailings and judge when the Blue Mooners are most receptive to ordering?
Couple more questions. Are you doing the printing and mailing of the cards? What costs? I just printed an oversized post card not knowing it was the full .41. What POS system do you use? I just signed a contract with speedline. They are hooked up with Mailmark >nit sure if I wiill do it thru them or on my own but I will have the addresses either way. Thanks for the info.
Last year I was using Monster Magnets. Then someone on here linked Postcard Printing Company, so now I order 3ish-cent full-color 4x6 postcards.
I generate my customer list then have my local mailing house clean it up (to avoid double mailings or bad addresses) and mail it out. Costs about about 23 cents per card for postage and processing.