Why Didn’t My Martial Arts Direct Mail Postcard Work?
September 5, 2008 by Ryan Wheaton
Filed under Offline Marketing
An interesting question just came through my “Ask a Question and Get an Answer” form regarding martial arts direct mail:
I have tried just about every special. Just mailed out post cards to 10,000 homes for the cost of 650.00. 7 calls and set up trials to only have them not show up. Do a special and at the end they say to much do not want to sign up. How do I attract students as well as adult students — Ms. Ramires, N. Carolina.
Thanks for the great question and for trying direct mail!
Let me start by saying I don’t think direct mail failed you. I think there were a few other major contributing factors that I suspect made your direct mailer tank.
Why Your Direct Mailer Likely Failed
Given that you sent to 10,000 addresses with a 0.07% response rate and a 0% conversion rate, I suspect the list wasn’t very targeted or pre-qualified.
An average response rate for direct mail is usually 2%. That means you should have had about 200 response to your direct mailer. 100 at the minimum. Something clearly went haywire.
You can have a great offer that no one else offers and is very compelling. You can even have a great looking postcard that reads like poetry and sets the standard in graphic design. However, if your list isn’t targeted, it doesn’t matter how many you send. No one will care.
Case in point: I receive mailers from the AARP all the time. Great creative and offer. They hit me up all the time and try all sorts of formats on me. However, they missed one important fact… I’m in my 30′s and 15-20 years away from caring.
In a nut shell, I suspect your direct mailer didn’t produce the desired response rate because of the list you mailed it to.
The 40/40/20 Rule
Many direct mail experts state the following 40/40/20 rule. This rule means that 40% of the success is on the list, 40% on the offer, and 20% on the creative. So, the two biggest areas of impact are going to be 1) who you send it to and 2) what you offer them.
Assuming you had a decent offer, it comes down to the list you rented.
Choose Your List Carefully
As the old saying goes, it’s not about quantity, it’s about quality. You need to look at the demographic breakdown of the list and make sure it’s going to prequalified prospects for best results.
I would ask the following questions to better understand your list:
- Did it go to people with limited income? Say less than $30,000 a year?
- What as the age range of your list? Did it go to people outside your target age range?
- Did you send a kids specific offer to single adults without kids?
- Did you send it to people outside of 3-5 miles of your martial arts school?
- Did you filter out renters?
- How old is the list you used
- Etc.
If you don’t pull out people from your mailing list who aren’t in your target market and aren’t very good prospects, then you’re wasting your time and money and your response rate will plummet. The more targeted you can make your list, the more impact you will have when you send direct mail to it.
How to Segment for Parents
If you’re going after parents, the mailing list should target couples roughly ages 25-49 with 1 or more children, have an income of over $50,000, own their own home and cars, and live within 3-5 miles radius of your martial arts school. All of these list selects (a term used to describe list variables) will help you filter your list to make it more targeted. You can get even more finite than that to help filter even more. Check with your list provider for more information.
How to Segment for Adults
If you’re going after adults, then, you probably don’t want to target parents. I would target single people before couples because they are more likely to have the time and resources. And, I would go after younger adults ages 18-39 years. You might even want to segment further and break it out by male and female and develop separate mailers to each audience then develop specific offers to test for each.
Remember, parent’s typically put their kids activities before theirs so they aren’t usually a good target. By targeting singles, you will likely get a more receptive audience.
My Recommendation
Before doing another mailer, I recommend you determine who you want to attract (parents or adults), get a list that targets that specific audience, develop an offer that goes after that audience, and write copy that speaks to the benefits they care about with corresponding photos.
Further, I also suggest you do a couple of smaller test mailings using different offers to see what gets people to respond. Once you have a clear winner, I would send out to the rest of the list using that offer.
Many give up on direct mail thinking it doesn’t work. it requires a lot of focus, targeting, and testing. However, it’s one of the most effective ways to market a product or service. You can’t do it once, get a low or no response, and think it sucks. You have to keep testing until you find the right combination.
In the United States, direct mail comprised 29% of all mail in 1980 and 43% in 2003. So, it does work. You just need to make sure you’re targeting it to the right people, first.
How do you target the right audience for your martial arts direct mailers? Share your insight in the form of a comment below!
Popularity: 4%
Loading ...
I'm Ryan Wheaton and I work with martial arts school owners to help them attract more students. Many martial arts school owners are confused at how to best market their business and feel awkward in selling situations. I help them overcome those challenges to become confident and competent in marketing and selling their services - helping them become more profitable so they can live the lifestyle they want to live.
First determine clearly who you are talking too. Next what is your message, whats the offer.Be very specific in your list that you purchase and know as much about the list as possiable. Then look and see the common denominators to your list and your offer. Do not stop finding the common denominators until you are loaded with the connections between your list and your offer.
Initially reading this I would say a whole lot of things went wrong; hard to be accurate without the whole picture though.
Direct mail for a retail store/business is local (yes your dojo is retail), there should be no ‘list’ purchase, just go to the local post office and send a direct mail piece to each box in your community.
The largest issue I have with direct pieces is the layout of the flyer and the message; how are you grabbing the attention of the reader?
The old “Karate Registration” ad is tired and doesn’t do anything useful. The best response rate can be worked on with any direct mail piece by wording to target a specific audience. This makes it easier for testing ads as well.
Just a few thoughts…
Very good advice regarding selection of the mailing list. But I wouldn’t assume that’s the only problem. Often, the offer isn’t clear. Or it doesn’t have the required urgency (“Call Now.” Or “This offer good for only the next 10 days.” Or “This offer good for the next 5 students ONLY.” All too often, there’s not even a clear call to action. There must be a call to action, and that call should be for immediate action.
The problem of someone not signing up after the trial is an entirely different issue. In that case, you’ve overpromised and underdelivered. People were expecting to get more out of the program than they actually did. And there isn’t enough incentive for them to pay up to continue. Make sure the prospects feel they’ve gotten something good from the free trial, and make sure that there’s some incentive for them to stick around as paying customers.
I agree with all the above points. One other thing is to make sure your direct mail piece isn’t too cluttered. A lot of times I see either no call to action or multiple call to actions. For instance, creating a piece that is selling a summer program, an adult program, a kids program, and an after-school program is too varied. When you’re targeting using your list selects, you also have to target using your cards.
When I send out direct mail, typically for just my summer programs, I ONLY include information about the summer program and I target the list to people with kids, money, and good location. I only include one call to action with an odd percentage: Call us today to recieve 23% off your first month!
One other important element: “Space is limited to 75 students this summer. Hurry! We were completely FULL the last two summers!” Make sure you create that sense of urgency, or people will put the card away and possibly forget about you.
Good luck!