which matters more; Mail piece or consistency?

[Fitzgerald Hall]

Hello everyone,

I am in the midst of direct mail marketing journey and I would like some feedback from experienced marketers. From your experience, which would you say plays a bigger role in attracting leads; mail piece or consistency? I understand consistency is the butter that keeps the bread together but how important is it to send out multiple pieces of mail. The reason I am asking is because I am a simple person and would like nothing more than to send only postcards and receive leads vs mixing up my marketing piece which could complicate things. 

But on another note, I do not want to miss out on valuable leads because I chose not to mix up my marketing piece. I am targeting tax delinquencies if this helps. 

@Michael Quarles 

[Michael Quarles]

@Fitzgerald Hall 

IMHO when marketing it is vital that you deliver your message in a fashion which attracts as much opportunity as it can. In other words you want the largest volume of customers per dollar spent. 

Solution. Create a Marketing Cluster

Marketing Cluster  - which almost sounds counter intuitive.

However business clustering has been around for years and research supports the idea that like businesses who cluster will out perform those which don't.

Think about all of the different types of Business Clusters. 

On opposite corners of an intersection are different gas stations, Heck I have even seen the same brand on opposite corners. Then it is hard to find just one fast food company on a street or corner. If there is a McDonalds then typically you will find a few others as well.

It seems that Home Depot and Lowes build almost next door to each other.  

Auto Dealers have been clustering for years. In fact Cerritos Auto Square in California in the worlds largest has 29 different brands of automobiles. Crazy but not. 

And what about Shopping Malls? How can a Hundred Clothing Stores make more money being in the same building then separate buildings?

The answer is simple...

Consumers want choice.

Look at this picture.

What three things are consistent? 

1) They are all WATER

2) They are all in plastic bottles (not important)

Can you figure out the third?

3) They are all owned and sold by Coca-Cola. 

So one must ask why Coca-Cola needs to sell, in this picture, six different brands of water. Last time I checked water is water no one can make it. Couldn't Coca-Cola just have a single brand and save millions on marketing and tooling of production facilities?

Or did Coca-Cola figure out that multiple brands of the same product is better than one independent brand? Much like Business Clusters. Humm.

So the question is which matters more, the mail pieces or mail consistency? 

Since we are all consumers let me answer that question with a question.

Which is better, Choice or No Choice? 

And in the world of marketing when utilizing direct mail choice wins. But dont take my opinion for it ask yourself this question. 

If you were motivated to sell your home and you received six pieces of mail offering to buy your home and lets say that the mail pieces were six different types. You received a yellow letter, Text Postcard, Pictorial Postcard, Professional Letter, ZipLetter, and Greeting Card. 

Which sender would you decide was the best one to call upon? Maybe the most professional looking mail piece, or the one that was handwritten, even the nice greeting card with a personal message was attractive to you. Gosh but the postcard was direct and to the point and that zipletter offered a check that was really cool. 

All you have to do is decide. Who would you call. And this isnt a trick question and there are no wrong answers. You can call just one or you can call them all. It doesn't matter to me...

But why doesnt it matter? 

Because like Coca-Cola who owns 112 beverages I use all six to my advantage. I let the consume choose who they think has presented to them the best message in the most appropriate delivery vehicle. 

So here they sit on the day they decide to call and talk to a stranger about selling their home. 

They have 6 different types of mail from me all with different telephone numbers and a couple more pieces from two other people. The other two guys sent them the same thing over and over. Bored the crap out of them. In their case the consumer only keeps one of each of their marketing pieces since they're the same and throws away the rest. 

Here is what that looks like.

Different Perspective

Wouldn't you want the GREEN?

If you are spending the same amount of money as the other two guys and have 4:1 advantage wouldn't you want to Cluster Market. Wouldn't you want to give your consumer a choice?