Below you will find many of the frequently asked questions about Direct Mail and Email Optimization. Please feel free to browse through this portion of our site or if you are ready to get more information about the process, you can click here to receive our form.

Why Optimize?

If you want to make more money, waste less money and reach more people, the only way to do it is by optimizing your mailers. This process takes you from guessing to knowing what impacts your results. Most advisors find that using our optimization saves them money over the long run and makes them money by increasing the response rate after the first use of the "optimized mailer."

What can I expect from the optimization?

Let me start by saying what not to expect. We don't do your mailer. We don't mail your mailer. We don't tell you what to put in your mailer. NOTE - We can and will do this but this is outside the scope of optimization.

What you will get from the optimization is this: a report that says which factors affected your mailer and which ones didn't. From the report you can put together a mailer that uses the favorable factors and leaves the other ones out if they are costly. You will have a snap shot that shows what worked on that day. You can then use that information to produce your optimized mailer.

Please note that I said your optimized mailer. With all my years of marketing experience, I know that one size doesn't fit all! As a matter of fact, I don't think it fits most. You have too many variables to think that a mailer that worked for a financial professional in Chicago will work the same in small town Oklahoma. The markets have too many differences.

Why hasn't this been offered before?

Major corporations have used it for years. They have used the same principles to make major corporate decisions. This is a cornerstone of some of the ways major automobile and high tech firms make decisions about new products. The challenge is that they have had the engineers and statisticians to use the very complex process. They have the talent and high powered brains to use it.

Now with advances in technology and software, it's becoming cost effective for other applications like studying direct mail response rates and factors.

Why is this so inexpensive?

We want to keep our cost as low as we can. We know that most people spend about $1 for each piece of mail they send out! (Yes, some of the pre-packaged systems are less than that but other people spend well over $1 per piece.) If a person could get real data for the amount of money they would waste on a single campaign to 1,500 people - well, that's a good business model to follow. I would guess that for people that are heavy direct mail users, spending $5,000 would be a very small price to pay!

What quantity do I need to mail to get reliable results?

The answer is more is better than less. To test 7 factors or variables as part of the optimization, we will provide you with 18 different mailers. This means that you will mail to 18 different groups. For the test, we want 450 people or households per group. If the list is not one of the factors you are testing, you want them all to be random people from the same list company.

How fast will I know what is important in my mailer?

The standard response from snail mail is about 2 weeks. Email can be tabulated in as little as a week. Once you have all of your responses as a percentage of the total and give us that data, we will provide you with the final report and factors that are important, as well as those that are less important, in 2 business days.

Do all of the tests come up with the same answers?

No. Each optimization is different because each mailer is different. I would guess that at some point in time after seeing hundreds of test results, I will have some indication of what factors matter more than others. But, as always, each market area and target market responds differently.

Couldn't I just use the same data as a person in my office?

Sure you can! I wouldn't but you have free will and can do whatever you like. FYI - This is sarcasm.

I wouldn't have the same dental procedure as my neighbor or the same open heart surgery.

Even if you are targeting the exact same target market, your personal information and presentation may be slightly different. That means that your mail will be a little different and that could make a huge impact on your final results.