Direct Mail still works... if you reach the right customer, at the right time, in the right place.
Construction Monitor July 2011 Whitepaper
Direct Mail still works ‌ if you reach the right customer, at the right time, in the right place. Why building permit information remains the ultimate lead source for the construction industry to reach consumers in their mailbox.
So you’ve decided to reach home builders in their mailbox. What are the first steps? There are many unanswered questions when initiating a direct mail campaign. Why not just use email? Does direct mail still get results? What content will engage the consumer? When should you attempt to mail prospects? In today’s world consumers are inundated with advertising at every possible place. So the question arises, what is the best approach when trying to reach the home builder? Why not just use email? With the arrival of email in the 1990s many companies sent millions of emails to millions of unsuspecting people. At first, consumers were happy to open any email message sent to their inbox, but soon these emails were seen as a nuisance. As a result, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 was passed to help regulate spamming. This and other measures encouraged businesses to adopt a more polite model when attempting to email customers. This required the (opt in or opt out) option to be included on the email. At present, permission based email is the industry standard and marketing departments are once again looking at direct mail as a viable alternative option to reach customers directly. Does direct mail still get results? The answer is a resounding yes! According to a recent study 79% percent of households either read or scan advertising mail sent to their household (USPS Diary Study, 2009). In fact, 37.6% of mailers sent from the services industry were read immediately by the consumer, 27.7% were seen as useful, and 5.6% committed to respond. Industry Type Services Merchants Financial Social, Charitable, or Political
Read Immediately (% of pieces) 2007 2008 39.2 37.6 50.4 51.1 29.7 32.7 47.4 42.8
Found Useful (% of pieces) 2007 2008 28.6 27.7 51.3 50.2 21.5 22.7 34.7 34.1
Will Respond (% of pieces) 2007 2008 5.9 5.6 15.6 15.6 3.0 3.7 9.7 8.8
Source: USPS Household Diary Study, 2009
1 July 2011 White paper
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What content will engage the prospect? There are many questions to answer when considering how to attract the prospect’s attention. For instance, what headline to use, where to put a call-to-action, and what kind of mail piece should be sent? Many of these decisions will be left in the hands of a copywriter and designer, however, it is still wise to know what kind of mail piece will generate the most response. The graph below shows that in 2008 the postcard format received the most response with 47.9% of respondents taking the time to read the mail piece.
Read Read by more than one member of household Looked at, but not read Discarded Set aside Don’t Know/No response Total mail received by households
Letter-Size Envelope 2007 2008 31.6 33.4 4.2 3.8
Larger than Letter Envelope 2007 2008 35.2 39.2 6.5 5.4
19.5
18.6
17.9
35.8 2.6 6.3
33.0 3.4 7.8
100.0
100.0
Detached Label Card 2007 25.3 5.9
2008 24.7 4.6
17.3
24.6
20.4
29.2 5.1 6.2
28.6 6.3 3.3
33.1 1.9 9.1
34.2 3.5 12.6
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
Source: USPS Household Diary Study, 2009
Flyers
2007 41.5 7.0
2008 47.9 8.3
2007 35.7 8.2
2008 35.2 8.3
Catalog Not in Envelope 2007 2008 35.2 36.8 11.2 10.3
18.1
15.2
17.3
16.9
13.8
12.5
26.3 1.9 5.2
24.1 2.5 2.0
26.2 4.6 7.9
26.6 4.2 8.7
18.1 14.1 7.7
19.3 13.4 7.6
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
Postcard Read Read by more than one member of household Looked at, but not read Discarded Set aside Don’t Know/No response Total mail received by households
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When should you mail the prospect? Most businesses would like to know the exact moment a consumer is ready to buy. Reaching a prospect at the very instant they’re in need of your product or service is pivotal to converting them into a paying customer. This may seem like an impossible feat; however, by using building permit information it is now possible to reach home builders at the beginning of the buying cycle. Building Permit Information---the ultimate lead source. Just imagine… every week thousands of consumers fill out a building permit outlining the specifics of their next big project. These are consumers invested in spending thousands of dollars to make their dreams into a tangible reality. They are open to the creative process and want to be given a variety of options to choose from. They are ready and anxious to buy. Moreover, many of these projects will be under construction for the next 3-12 months, providing ample time to design a strategic direct mail campaign and follow-up sequence. It all depends on where your product or service fits into the construction timeline. Here is an example of a strategy one customer has implemented to capture the prospect’s attention at just the right moment. Case Example: Mark owns a local lighting store in rural Utah and is frustrated by the big-box stores always taking his customers. His business provides a unique variety of light fixtures at comparable prices, but Mark struggles to reach his market. He decides building permit information is a more cost-effective option since he doesn’t have a large marketing budget. He wisely chooses strategy over volume knowing that sending a segmented message to the prospect---when they’re invested to buy---will drives better results. Each week, after receiving an email notification of building permits issued in the area, Mark logs onto Construction Monitor and drills down to project specifics. He runs a query with the Powersearch Tool to narrow the list to only include new remodels and single family homes. Using the Mailing Labels Tool he instantly prints the list into 25 standard Avery labels. Each label is then carefully placed on a pre-designed postcard that includes a 25% off coupon in order to measure the campaign’s success. In addition, a sequence has been outlined with several follow-up calls scheduled within the next few weeks. By mapping a strategic route to a successful campaign, Mark knows that every customer that walks through the door---coupon in hand---was brought to him by using building permit data from Construction Monitor. See Customer Testimonial on YouTube The above case study shows several marketing strategies in action. 1. 2. 3. 4.
Targeted –directed at specific market segments Personalized-the message sent to addresses the prospect’s needs Measurable-the ROI of the campaign is easily measured with the use of the coupon Timed-the message was sent within a strategic time frame.
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Reach the Next Home Builder with Construction Monitor The standard consumer receives 24.7 (USPS, 2009) pieces of mail in their box each week. Compare this number with your personal email inbox and it is easy to see that there is much less competition in the mail box. Direct mail remains a successful way to get in on the next construction project. Consumers respond best to timely and relevant content, personalized to meet their very specific needs. Building permit data is the best lead source for accurate information to reach home builders in the construction industry. For the past 20 years the construction industry has been using Construction Monitor as the ultimate lead source. Millions of building permits have been collected and data-based to help thousands of industry professionals finds consumers in need of their products and services.
United States Postal Service (2009). The household diary study: mail & attitudes (USPS Contract #102592-02-B-1502). Washington, DC: U.S. United States Postal Service Headquarters. Retrieved from http://www.usps.com/householddiary/2009files/2009FullReport_PDF/USPS_HDS_FY09_FINAL_web.pdf
4 July 2011 White paper
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