We’re exhibiting and speaking at the upcoming CircDayLA 2009 conference on Thursday, October 1st at The Los Angeles Athletic Club in Los Angeles, CA.

John Cote of Ballantine will be speaking with Greg Wolfe of Circulation Specialists, Inc. in a session titled DIRECT MAIL & MORE: This Worked, That Didn’t!

CircDayLA is a one-day conference filled with exhibitors and marketing sessions completely focused on helping Circulation professionals. John P. Loughlin of Hearst Magazines will be the keynote speaker.

If you’re attending, please stop by our booth to say hello to John.

Welcome back. Have you subscribed to our blog's email updates yet? Remember - you also get the free whitepaper pictured left on cutting direct mail costs.

The June 2009 issue of our ‘Sample of the Month’ direct mail case study features our client HAWAII Magazine and their test of a double postcard to acquire new subscribers and reacquire lapsed subs.

This case study will also prove to you how effective housefile mailings can be (housefile meaning customers, clients, subscribers, etc.). As a result, this case study is applicable to most companies, not just publishers.

Campaign Details

The 4-color double postcard measures 6″ wide by 4.25″ high (closed) and opens up to 6″ wide by 8.5″ high. The middle is perfed and one half gets returned (standard DPC). The offer is for 1 free issue of HAWAII Magazine and a bonus Luau Guide. They are then automatically billed $15 for 5 more issues with the option to cancel.

This DPC mailing was split into 2 segments:

Segment 1

The first segment was a non-housefile mailing to Hawaii property owners that live on the mainland (90% of their subscribers live on the mainland). The personalized copy that was included on the front of this segment’s DPC included “Come Home To HAWAII Year-Round” and “Be Instantly Transported To Your Home Away From Home”.

Segment 2

The second segment was a housefile mailing of lapsed subscribers from the last 3 years with a geographic select that mimics their highest concentrations of subscribers. The personalized copy that was included on the front of this segment’s DPC included “Escape To HAWAII Year-Round” and “Skip The Long Plane Ride And Be Instantly Transported To Paradise”.

Both segments shared the same offer in addition to the same artwork for the back and inside of the DPC.

DPC Pictures

You can view pictures of the double postcard by CLICKING HERE.

Campaign Results

As you can probably assume, the housefile mailing (lapsed subscribers) performed better…but the non-housefile mailing (Hawaii property owners) also did well partly due to the amount of attention given to the details of the data file by HAWAII Magazine’s Marketing Manager.

—> Response rate for the housefile mailing was 6.35%
—> Response rate for the non-housefile mailing was 2.59%

This reinforced HAWAII Magazine’s need to continue to mine its own database because there is definitely low-hanging fruit to be had.

The July 2007 issue of Inside Direct Mail featured our client E Magazine.

Here’s the story…

They were having trouble getting direct mail to work for them to acquire new subscribers…they tested both a voucher package and a double-postcard, but both were not effective.

Circulation Specialists, Inc. – E Magazine’s circulation management provider (we handle the printing and mailing) – recommended trying brand new creative, pricing and formats…the end result was a response rate that almost doubled.

You can view the campaign details here.

E Magazine was about to give up on direct mail…but they put money towards really excellent creative and completely revived their acquisition efforts.

Recommending to you that you should invest in new creative before throwing in the towel on direct mail isn’t something you haven’t heard before…but this success story proves that it’s an investment worth considering.