How Do You Track Your Direct Mail Campaigns?

[Alvin Grier]

I've done one round of absentee letters so far, and there's got to be a better way to go about tracking our campaigns than what I've been trying to do.

From keeping track of the returned envelopes, to all of the various responses I get via email and telephone from the recipients, not to mention the other duties I have, I've been having a hard time keeping track of the responses, let alone keeping metrics on the effectiveness of the campaign, which I definitely would like to do.

What kind of system do you have established to track responses and the effectiveness of your direct mail campaigns?

Especially considering that sometimes I take calls when I'm out and about; in these instances, I have to find a piece of paper or something to jot down their property information as well as make a note to update my spreadsheet of absentee owners that I got a new response...

The process of tracking this seems very intimidating to me. There's so much to it.

I need to establish an effective system that we can use to make this a little simpler.

I'm so confused and overwhelmed, that I don't even know what I'm asking for in particular, I just need a system... like yesterday! :-)

Thanks in advance for your help and time.