Direct mail response rates vs # times mailed

[Jeff Fairchild]

If a person sends out 1,000 mailers per month for 6 months and they are expecting a 3% average return, is that 3% each time they send out a mailer or 3% overall for the 6 months?

So is that 30 calls over 6 months or 30 calls per month?

I've heard that it is best to vary the types of pieces, ex. yellow letter then postcard then zip letter etc. If i do this should i be expecting more than 3% overall if I'm mailing 6 times?

[Larry Turowski]

@Jeff Fairchild I'm not a direct mail expert, but I've done some.  You'll have to start keeping your own records to find out what works best for you but you got the basic idea.  1% to 5% per mailing.  First mailing gets a better response than subsequent to the same address list.  What exactly that graph looks like, I'm not sure.

You will likely find that you get more responses from yellow letters, but the percentage of motivated sellers is smaller.  Also, responders to subsequent mailings will likely be more motivated than those from your first.  And different people will respond to different mailings.

Keep track of the piece, when it hit mailboxes (date and day of the week), and what number mailing it was.  You'll start to see trends eventually.  But here is the important thing.  Seeing the trends will help you improve on something that is working.  A car can be burning oil but still getting you from point A to point B.  Don't worry about having the best tuned engine at first--just get to point B.