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Are You Pre-Filling Reponse Cards?
August 11, 2008

In my last series of posts, I talked about a quick and easy way to boosting your direct marketing response rates—fast. Segmenting your direct mailings so that your copy speaks differently to each targeted segment.

If you send response cards, there is another quick and easy way to boost your response rates. Pre-fill them with the recipient’s information. This way, all they have to do is drop the card in the mail.

Sounds simple, but it’s a powerful response-rate booster.

The more steps a recipient has to take in order to respond to an offer, the less likely they are to do it. After all, the recipient may really want to take advantage of the offer, but how many things can get in the way? They are busy at the moment, but they put it aside and forget about it. They plan to do it later, but the card gets lost. They can’t find a pen. They start to fill it out and get interrupted. They fill it out, but don’t have stamps handy and never get around to it.

Remove the obstacles by pre-filling (and, even better, pre-paid postage) and the response rate goes up. It’s proven by case studies over and over again. A few years ago, Direct Marketing News did a side-by-side test of pre-filled and static response cards. Pre-filling was the only variable in the campaign. The pre-filled cards generated a 28% higher response rate.

Have questions? Comments? I'd love to hear from you. You can email me at htollvr@aol.com. For more information on primers for marketers and small businesses on digital, 1:1, and Web-to-print technologies, visit www.digitalprintingreports.com.

Posted by Heidi Tolliver Nigro on August 11, 2008 | Comments (0)