Direct Mail

Richard Monro · 05-01-2005, 07:41 AM

Mary,
Your conversion rate (making the sale) of 7% is astounding. In typical direct mail terms one would expect only 1 conversion to a sale for every 20 responses. For the typical 3% response rate the conversion rate would normally be about 0.15%. Congratulations. You are doing something special in your postcard that we would all like to see. Could you post it for all to see and imitate (with your permission of course)? Could you also tell us what demographic profile you used to develop you mail list? Nothing succeeds like success.

Mary Sparrow · 05-01-2005, 08:21 AM

Richard, I can almost guarantee that I have several more coming in from that 100 alone.

My card is posted earlier in this thread. There are a couple of things working in my favor. I paint children, I have 3 between the ages of 2-6 so I started my list from their play school classes. I live in a small suburb of Charlotte where you will find most people have portraits done of their children. I then contacted a couple of previous clients, one showed up with a list of all of her old sorority sisters with young children. This list was great because it got me out of just my town. It is sort of a situation where they all have to have what the other one has

Her list was a little gold mine. The mother of the last portrait I did (Lydia in unveilings) is in Atlanta, she is so excited about hers she wants more, and she emailed me yesterday to tell me she had four other friends that were planning to call. The brother sister pair has also resulted in another contact not on my mailing list. This word of mouth thing is great!

I'm not exactly expensive, so that makes a sale easier I'm sure. I doubt I would have gotten this sort of response, if any, had I just mailed out postcards to people that had never heard of me.

Michele Rushworth · 05-01-2005, 10:49 AM

My experience with direct mail has been somewhat different.

I'm mailing a 6x8" card to a purchased list of about 300 of Bill Gates' neighbors. I sent out the third monthly postcard mailing to this group a couple of days ago, and so far, not a single response. I'll probably send one or two more mailings to this same list and then stop if nothing happens.

Mary Sparrow · 05-01-2005, 11:00 AM

Michele, I think though the difference here is the personal thing. Every person on my list either knew me, (which actually was a small percentage) or knew someone that had a portrait done by me. For the people that I didn't know such as the client who gave me all of her sorority sisters, I signed it with a personal note such as "Millie says Hi!"... She said for me to do that and I think it was a great idea because that prompted them to call her to catch up and in the meantime she gave an extra push on the portrait by telling them she was getting ready to have another one done of her daughter.

I honestly think if I had sent these out to the same type of potential clients that had never heard of me that the response would have been very different.

Mike McCarty · 05-01-2005, 11:09 AM

Michele,

I don't have any way to quantify, or prove this, but I have a feeling. I did my mailing to the ultra rich as well and right up to the point when I sent them out I had a sense that I was doing it wrong.

I believe that this group of people (maybe out of necessity) have developed systems to screen unwanted crap (perceived or real) from their lives. Even to the point of having their mail screened.

I had a strong feeling that I should have made my aim lower. I don't mean the middle class, I'm just saying that I have a bad feeling that the goods never get delivered to the very, very rich.

I mailed 850 cards and got 0 response. Well, that's not completely true, one old man called me twice and stood me up to discuss painting an eleven people portrait from his family photograph.

Of course this theory prevents me from considering the possibility that they all had a good close look at it and still decided that it was crap.

Richard Monro · 05-01-2005, 11:46 AM

Mike,
Your thinking is correct....not that your work is crap, but that the super rich have staff to screen their mail. I know a few families in that category and they don't even see their mail unless it is a personal letter that has already been screened by staff. Bill Gates even has staff to select the paintings he collects.
My suggestion is to target the upper middle class buyers who have purchased a home within the last year valued between $750,000 and $3 million and who also have an interest in art. They are usually just beginning to collect art to decorate their homes and haven't yet approached the level of the art afficionado who only wants the very best art available.
As Mary's experience shows, using your own mailing list (customers who have purchased in the past or those who have shown interest in your work) or a list that is highly personallized will always show higher returns. Don't give up on direct mail. Make additional trial runs until you get the demographics right. Then keep mailing monthly and you will see responses and sales start to pick up.

Michele,
Don't waste any more time on your current campaign. A zero response in three tries says it is not working. I suspect your mail list demographics are off. See comments to Mike above. You might also want to compare your post card offer to the successful ones shown in this string on page 4. Maybe a little tweeking is needed.

Michele Rushworth · 05-01-2005, 12:23 PM

Very interesting point. I do have one client in that "super rich" category and they have staff to do everything. I guess none of the right people ever saw my card. Time to get a new list!

Kimberly Dow · 05-01-2005, 12:57 PM

Wow - this is great information. I have quite a few relatives where I am moving. A couple distant ones are doctors and know all the other doctors in the city and she swears the wives are always searching for ways to spend their money. I wasnt going to bother her with the names of her friends - I was just going to purchase a list, but now I know this may be worth it! I never would have thought the 'ultra rich' didnt see their mail, but that makes perfect sense!

By the way - the words 'figurative portrait' is a made-up term. My figuratives are on 'spec' and for sale. But - I love the idea that folks would hire me for those....interesting poses, more costume-like clothes, not always a direct and clear face. With different clothing and more 'action' poses I think I could tell a lot about the client. That's the hope anyway. My figuratives as they stand now dont tell a thing about the models because I dressed them up and posed them.