The Direct Marketing Association notes in its recently released 2012 Response Rate Report that direct mail response rates have dropped nearly 25% over the past nine years. Even so, direct mail pulls a better overall response than digital channels.
The report also says that:
- Cost per order or lead for acquisition campaigns were roughly equivalent for direct mail ($51.40), post card ($54.10), email ($55.24), and paid search ($52.58).
- Email had the highest ROI (28.5), compared with 7.00 for direct mail.
- The highest response rates—nearly 13 percent to a house list—was produced by telephone marketing. Telephone marketing also had the highest costs: nearly $78 per order or lead for a house list, and $190 for a prospect list.
For the 53% of Agitator readers who have been in the fundraising biz less than ten years, yes, telemarketing lives!
Tom
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With mail’s response rate being so high, and email’s ROI winning, it’s interesting that the DMA emailed the survey
As a fundraiser we’re always very interested in the costs of acquistion. However there does seem to be a big discrepency within these US numbers. The cost of an order (or donation) at $51 through DM is pretty good, closer to £60 in the UK. However the cost of a lead at $51 seems very step indeed. Better analysis needed me thinks.
Just wondering: Did the DMA split out “fundraising” as a category? And, if so, is the cost of a first donation the same as a first order ($51), etc.? The DMA press release talks about retail apparel and publishing/media, but doesn’t mention gifts. I worry about applying commercial (B2B and B2C) data to the weird, wacky world of asking people to give you money is return for a good feeling (or a trinket). And, of course, I’m too cheap to buy the full DMA report, so I’m hoping you did.
I’m thrilled to see this. I find myself defending the value of mail on a regular basis (why do I have to do this? Don’t people see where their revenue is coming from?).
I’m pretty sure I saw some statistics recently, but can’t remember where, that even most online non-profit giving is driven my mail.
Too bad we’re not better at actually tracking that.
Nice report. Interesting that highest response rates is for house list by telephone marketing.
I find ‘last touch point’ analysis (which I assume it is?) is less and less reflective of the real picture. Impact in today’s highly fragmented multiple touch point world needs to be analysed as a media mix not by single channel.
Hopefully this report is read with the understanding that it’s the right mix that’s important and relying on a single channel is risky.