I read an article today about how a fast-food chicken franchise was able to garner a 280% response rate on a 5,000 piece postcard mailing. For perspective, in case you were wondering, the “typical” or “average” response rate for direct mail is 2%. 

So how, you might ask, is it even possible to get more responses then the number of pieces sent?

The answer is quite simply by incorporating social media and the sharing element of this type of networking into the campaign.

From a cold list that they purchased from a list broker, they were able to get 14,128 hits (280%) to their micro-site that they set up specifically for the campaign, with 6,089 people providing some sort of personal data.

First, a postcard was sent which had perforated coupons that were redeemable in the store. The postcard also featured a PURL, or personalized URL which incorporated the recipient’s name, encouraging them to visit “their own” website for additional coupons and a “chance to win” something big. Once on the site, they were asked to “share” these great offers and chance to win with their friends via Facebook, Twitter, etc.

All told, in four weeks they had over 1,300 coupons redeemed and over 3,400 additional names and contact information for their data base.

This fully integrated multi-channel direct marketing campaign with viral components earned the agency the 2010 Direct Marketing Practices award from PODi (the digital printing initiative).

The simple fact that this direct mail campaign was more “social” then the traditional one-way communication of most postcards blew away any preconceived notions that direct mail is dead.

With the saturation of the market with email messages, right now is a great time to spend on direct mail. Coupled with the fact that many businesses are scaling back on direct mail, this is the perfect opportunity for a well-planned campaign to really stand out in people’s “actual” mailboxes…just make sure it’s “social”.

John Zalepka