Great Question! The answer is simple. Because of our many years of experience, you get more bang for your buck with SBSC. We do not just print, mail or telemarket.
Your success in a direct marketing campaign is our success. We will knock
ourselves out to make you happy. You will learn ways to save on postage; how to
get a better response; unique things that can be accomplished with mailing
lists; ways to cause excitement with unique offerings to prospects, donors, or
clients. Please consider that many companies offer printing, mailing and
fulfillment services. What they cannot offer is the expertise to make certain
that every job is letter perfect and 100% guaranteed. That is right, our work is
100% guaranteed or we will do it over! No one else offers that kind of
guarantee.
That is easy! Because it works. If it did not work, high tech firms like HP, Xerox, IBM and Microsoft would not spend millions of dollars each year on direct mail. They would only use social media and emails.
Depends on what you are trying to do. Big ticket item? Use a postcard to drive customers to your website, let the website do the selling. Real estate, try a flyer with color pictures (same is true for car dealers, furniture stores, etc.). If your offering insurance, accounting, or medical services, a carefully crafted letter or brochure works best, as a general rule.
Rule of thumb is at least three touches (mailings) to get some interest started. In some instances, you may need seven touches. Do not expect a huge return on your first mailing. With each mailing your ROI will increase. You have to keep testing
One of the best things about direct mail is that you can measure its success. You can find out what works and what does not. All you have to do is test. For example, send half of the mail with a 10% discount and the other half with a free product or service offer. Track which promotion brought you the most customers. Using this technique, you can determine which promotion to use in your next mailing. This is just one technique SBSC can teach you!
The list is critical. A good list is 70% to 80% of the success of any mailing.
As to shrinking, the answer is Yes and No! First class mail for bills is way down. Everyone pays online, but commercial mail (bulk) is growing and will continue to grow. We are talking almost 300 billion pieces of mail total. Projections are that by 2014, there will be a 4% increase in Bulk Mail over today. The Post Office is the largest employer in the USA. They are bigger than Walmart, GE, Microsoft, and General Motors combined. The Post Office employs over 600,000 people. Remember as popular as the internet is, people still like getting mail. Seventy eight percent of them open their mail immediately. Only twelve (12%) of emails are opened if ever! People on the internet have to seek out your services or products, but with direct mail you go directly to them. You make your own opportunity and do not have to worry if they will find you on the internet.