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Direct mail is definitely an
advertising, promotion and communication vehicle that should be considered as
you develop your plans. There are many reasons why direct mail makes sense for
an eyecare professional and a few where it may not be appropriate. Heres the
good, the bad and the ugly on direct mail as it relates to the eyecare
professional.
Essentially, direct mail is
communication sent directly to prospective, or current customers via the
postage system. Note the use of the word communication to indicate this can
be anything from a newsletter to a specific incentive like a coupon.
THE UPS AND DOWNS OF DIRECT MAIL
Direct mail offers a way to be
much more targeted in communication. More like a rifle than the shotgun
approach of radio or newspaper. The ECP can select the type of person they wish
to reach and have a good chance of hitting that person directly.
Direct mail provides the
opportunity to move from mass marketing to one-onone marketing. By targeting a
more specific audience, the ECP can better tailor the message. Messages can
even be personalized.
ECPs have greater flexibility in
the type of communication that can be sent. Direct mail options can be anything
from a newsletter, coupons or a glossy brochure.
Direct mail allows a professional
or an office to differentiate themselves from others. While all eyecare
professionals choose to be listed in the Yellow Pages (as they should be), very
few will send potential (or current) patients a personalized letter or offer.
Direct mail can test and retest different messages at a relatively low cost to
determine the most effective one.
There can be many costs involved
in a direct mail program. In addition to the cost of whatever is being sent out
(which may need to be professionally designed and printed), there are list
rentals, postage and assembly costs. These can definitely add up, although this
CE will discuss the opportunities to lower these costs later in this article.
Plus you have the cost of the offer itself.
The response on a typical direct
mailing can be from 3 to 5 percent (or lower). If you mail to 1,000 potential
patients, you may only get 30 inquirieswhich may or may not result in new
patients.
UNDERSTANDING THE EYEWEAR BUYER
Know some statistics about the
typical eyewear purchaser. Each offices patient base will likely be somewhat
different, but here are some reference points. In this way each practice can
better determine how to construct the best mail program.
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43 percent of adults bought
glasses or contact lenses for themselves during the past year; 39 percent
bought glasses, 10 percent bought contacts and 5 percent bought both.
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The median household income of
corrective lens buyers is $49,500; Average U.S. household income is $42,400
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58 percent of corrective lens
buyers are between the ages of 25 to 54; 44 percent of the general population
is between those ages.
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70 percent of corrective lens
buyers have accessed the Internet recently.
HOW THE PRACTICE AFFECTS A DIRECT
MAIL PROGRAM
Socrates said know yourself,
which is good advice in setting up a direct mail program. In this case, it
means know the characteristics and customers of your practice and how a direct
mail program could influence them. If your practice tends to primarily have
customers who are over 55, a campaign offering performance sunglasses may not
be a good fit. On the other hand, information and an offer for the newest
progressive lens might work better.
PUTTING TOGETHER A DIRECT MAIL
PROGRAM
Here are the steps involved in
putting together (or at least learning more about) a direct mail program:
Create an Objective
It is too obvious to say that
every program needs an objective. But, if you dont know what you want to
achieve, how will you know if you are successful?
Do you want new patients, do you
want to sell more AR coating, do you want to let people know that you have a
new selection of premium frames; do you want more PAL customers?
This is the first question to
answer.
Define the Customer
It is a generally accepted rule
of marketing that new customers probably live next door to current customers.
That means people with similar values and lifestyles tend to live near each
other. Whatever it is that attracts current customers to your office probably
makes you equally attractive to their neighbors.
So, take some time (or have staff
or a temp do this) to go through patient records to see who they are (age, sex,
occupation if recorded), where they live and what (and how often) they buy and
maybe what part of their bill they pay with insurance. You can do this by
looking at every fifth or tenth name (or some other number) rather than every
single name. Record each zip code, personal characteristics and what they have
purchased from you. Maybe you will find that most people in one zip code only
get exams, while those in another buy premium frames and PALs, and yet another
buy budget frames and flat tops.
If a large group of customers buy
a certain premium frame like rimless or a progressive lens, think how important
that will be if that frame or lens company introduces a newer design that
becomes important to tell people about.
Dont miss opportunities to
capture this basic information about your customers. Always build a customer
data base and stock it with as much information as possible. Patient software
records may have enough data to come up with profiles of different customers.
Lets say customer A comes in
annually, as regular as rain, gets an exam and buys a new pair of glasses and
frames. Then there is B customer who comes in and just buys frames and lenses,
no exam. And C customer who just gets an exam and takes his Rx elsewhere.
Insurance coverage for each of these customers may impact your conclusions.
Think about a strategy for each
of these customer or patient types. To insure that you are getting the maximum
return from customer A, offer an incentive on AR coating. Customer B might get
a discounted exam offer with a frame and lens purchase and C customer might be
offered a discount on glasses.
From the demographic profile
above, people who buy glasses are pretty close to the national average for
income and slightly older in age. But patients who help grow the bottom line,
are probably not. Even though Thomas Jefferson wrote all men are created
equal remember that all customers are not. Some are more important than
others. Treat better customers better.
It is easier to get current
customers to buy more than to get new customers. This brings us back to the
original objective. It could be that it is more effective doing a mailing to
current customers. (This saves the cost of renting a list.) At a minimum, think
about some type of direct mail communication with current customers in addition
or in lieu of a program that might be planned. At a minimum, a newsletter or
postcard reminder is in order for A and B and possibly C customers.
Data mining provides an idea of
where customers and potential customers are for different products and
services. Then, its a matter of matching the customer with the offer. Some
customers buy some products and services and some buy others. Each direct mail
campaign needs to best match the product or services offered with the customer
group that seems most likely to want to buy it. Then, its less of an unknown
to go after them.
At this point, the project can go
one of two ways: Look for a pre-existing direct mail program or develop your
own.
PRE EXISTING DIRECT MAIL PROGRAMS
There are several companies
(Valpak, Money Mailer) that send bulk mailings (cooperative direct mail) on a
periodic basis. Every consumers
received their share of these. The advantage is cost (including postage) and
convenience (to you). The disadvantage is being part of a crowd, little or no
control over the list and possibly restrictions on what the offer can look
like. Minimally, see if optical exclusivity is a possibility.
Valpak: This cooperative
direct mail advertising vehicle offers several options for the eyecare
professional. Find the local office by calling (800) 661-0964 or find more
information at www.valpak.com.
Valpak mails to qualified,
precisely defined audiences through trademarked Neighborhood Trade Areas of
about 10,000 households. You can choose to be included in any number of areas
that work for you. Valpak.com allows advertisers to extend their marketing
citywide via the Internet. Consumers can print coupons for businesses in their
local area. For a fee, one of these could be from your office.
Solo Values gives you the option
of mailing your offer individually using Valpak marketing and mailing services.
Valpak offers help in every
aspect of your campaign, including design, printing and consumer research.
Money Mailer: There are
several options for eyecare professionals. Money Mailer has 275 franchises in
36 states across the country. To find out more information, call them at (800)
MAILER-1 or see their web site at www.MoneyMailer.com.
Money Mailer consults with you to
assist in every aspect of campaign, including design, printing and mailing.
New Mover Solo Program sends an
individually sponsored full-color postcard (in a number of different sizes) to
people who have moved into the area within the last 90 days.
Shopper Program is an over-sized
envelope mailed to zones of 10K households with average to above-average
incomes within a geographic area. Participants can be included in any number of
zones, depending on their goals. The envelope contains mainly local businesses
that offer goods and services to consumers. Be sure to check the demographics
for each zone that might be included.
Email Programs are cost
effective communications that can target specific customers or provide a way to
get messages to all customers efficiently. Collect email addresses and most
importantly, patients permission to send them email. Since this is a topic in
itself, it will be covered in a future CE.
Loyal Customer Program is
an individual mailing using a list with your specific criteria (or your current
patient list). This is a full-color postcard with your choice of a number of
different sizes. Mailed offers can also go onto MoneyMailer.com and
hotcoupons.com to generate more reach (via the Internet) at little to no
additional cost.
CUSTOMIZED DIRECT MAIL
The other choice is to develop a
customized mailing. The key components of the mailing will be sending it to the
right people and making a persuasive offer. Obviously, the
target will be different depending on the products or services offered.
Lets say the targeted customer
profile tends to be 50+, female and financially above average. Consider
featuring a special offer on progressive lenses or a new frame line that hits
this market. Or, maybe a substantial number of customers are 30 to 40 years of
age and you want to further develop this part of your practice. Maybe they
would be interested in advances in AR coating, high-index lenses or polarized
sunglasses.
Collect the appropriate materials
from a manufacturer of choice, create a mailing list and contact the targeted
customers with an offer.
SELECTING A MAIL HOUSE
Its a good idea to find a direct
mail house early in this process. They can help in planning and executing your
program. Look in the phone book under Mailing Services and ask some tough
questions. How long have they been in business, in what other similar
businesses do they work, what can they offer in terms of list procurement and
management, personalization, advice, help in obtaining postal discounts and
references.
GETTING A MAILING LIST
This is one of the most important
parts of the direct mail effort. There are plenty of bad lists, which wont
meet your criteria and will have lots of duplication.
Buying a list isnt difficult
these days. There are several that can be ordered through the Internet, such as
www.usadata.com. For example, specify the geography (by zip code, county, etc.)
and demographics (including age, income, own vs. rent, etc.) of your target
right online. The site then tells how many names meet those criteria. Buy them
all or a portion of them. I did a test of Marin County, Calif., ages 40 to 57.
They came back with a total of 46,601 names for $0.037 each. For a random
selection of 5,000 namesmy arbitrary numberthe cost was $0.072 each on a
one-time use.
Alternatively, the mail house or
mail service should have some list brokers they can recommend. Discuss this
with them before committing to a list.
Usually buy a list for a one-time
or annual use. See what the options are and decide whether your office is
likely to do multiple mailings during the year. Like other media, direct mail
improves with frequency. (Its not a good idea to buy a list for a one-time use
and try to re-use it. There are
seed addresses in each list that come back to the list rental company.)
If youre going to test a few
offers on small groups and then take the winning offer to everyone, buy a
larger quantity. The mailing house can randomly select groups for testing.
Remember that responses will typically be fairly small, so dont buy a list
thats so small the program wont be worth the effort. (1,000 is a good test
cell.) The cost of each additional name (plus postage and handling) is small
relative to the potential revenue from the sale.
Be sure to ask the mailing house
what format in which to order the list. Make sure they know how you intend to
use it. If letters are going to be personalized, the mailing house will want a
file rather than hard copies.
WHAT TO SEND
Successful mailings make an offer
that will motivate people to act. (Unless a newsletter is being sent, which is
a good way to stay top of mind, but is not necessarily a way to compel someone
to do something.) Consider the offer and the best way to communicate it. As
with any form of advertising or communication, not only must the communication
get to the appropriate people, it must say something that is motivating to
them.
An important consideration is to
put an expiration date on the offer. This encourages people to act and also
allows an evaluation of the success of different programs more quickly. Be
aware that mailing by bulk will slow delivery. An offer that requires immediate
action and arrives by bulk mail may come too late for a realistic response.
THE OFFER
If you elect to feature a
product, consider if the manufacturer has brochures that can be included. Maybe
they have artwork that can be used in developing your own offer. Dont hesitate
to contact the manufacturing or marketing department for help. They probably
wont design the piece, but they certainly can help with artwork and logos.
They often can describe programs that have worked in other parts of the
country. Manufacturers are as anxious to help your office succeed as you are.
And theres no reason to re-invent the wheel if you dont have to. Dont forget
to ask how to qualify for any co-op funds that might be available.
Dont try to stuff too much into
the offer. Remember the KISS principle. Make the type at least 12 point; (14
point is better). Include a lot of white space on the page. Be clear about what
is being offered.
Direct mail is a unique medium.
An ad that works well in radio or newspaper may fall flat in direct mail.
Consider hiring a copywriter who specializes in direct mail to do some
polishing on your effort. Again, ask the direct mail house for advice.
You can mail just about anything.
For example, send an envelope with several inserts. Dont get something so full
of ancillary materials that customers may miss the central offer. Send a
postcard or a self-mailer (which must be sealed with a tab to meet postal
regulations). The envelope and the postcard are easiest to modify. You can just
change the offer letter in the envelope or the printing on the back of the
postcard. Print the front of the postcard in bulk. When large quantities are
printed in a four-color process, the costs can be quite affordable. Or, print
small runs of the back with different messages. This can be done at a local
printer.
The mailing house can personalize
the letter based on your mailing list. They can also print different letters
within the mailing. Get their input fairly early in the process. Mailing houses
fold letters or flyers and stuff them into envelopes.
If this is going to potential
customers, provide basic information about your practice to reassure them you
are legitimate. Include what insurance plans you accept and anything else of
basic importance. The mailing cannot be just the offer if these are new
customers. They need to know the basics are covered.
A mailing house should also allow
the use of their postal permit. This can help save money on postage. While
normal first class is $.39, the price can go as low as $.278. And bulk mail can
cost from $.169 to $.247. Work with the mailing house to get these costs down.
EVALUATING YOUR SUCCESS
Your direct mail program needs a
way to determine success. Know if it is appropriate to do it again. Or,
understand the results of testing different offers. There are several ways to
determine if the program is breaking through. Here are some:
Request some type of action. For
example, ask recipients to bring a card into your office for a drawing, find
the secret word in your newsletter or send you an email with the answer to a
quiz. All of these will work. Test different offers with the same action. Group
I will send you an email answer to one question, while Group II will answer
another questioneach for a different reward.
A discount off a purchase or a
gift with purchasethis requires a greater commitment from the customer, but
certainly indicates effectiveness. The only way they would know about the offer
would be through your mailing. Ask them to bring the card (or coupon) in at the
time of purchase. You can easily test different discounts to see which ones
maximize your return. There should be a level at which the discount is
motivating to customers and financially affordable. Evaluate the dollar
profitability of the product being offered after the discount. If it seems
workable, then try it. I dont recommend loss leaders for optical.
Direct mail has good rationale
and thousands of satisfied businesses to recommend it. Use the information in
this article to help you decide if it is right for your practice and if so, how
to be most effective in implementing a direct mail program.
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