The January 2009 issue of our ‘Sample of the Month’ direct mail case study features our client Devachan, a salon and spa that caters to curly-haired women.
The story centers around how they used a simple coupon self-mailer to generate an extra $94,000 in revenue in 2 months.
Self-Mailer Details
The 4-color self-mailer measures 8″ high by 3.5″ wide and folds open to 8″ high by 7″ wide. When open, the right side contains 3 perfed coupons: $20 off Devachan Hair, $20 off for Devachan Spa and 10% off Devachan products.
Devachan started producing these coupon self-mailers two years ago to try to jump start their holiday sales. They are sent out to their customer database the beginning of December and the coupons don’t expire until January of the following year. We handle the printing and mailing portion of the projects.
The idea was simply to send out eye-catching, inexpensive coupon mailers to generate extra revenue all year long, especially in the months of December and January.
The first mailer went out in December of 2007 and the second one went out in December of 2008. Furthermore, per our recommendation, we applied our Soft-Feel coating to the second mailer to give it a nice, velvet finish.
Project Results
From late December 2007 to January 2008, 312 coupons were redeemed with an average order of about $74 resulting in $23,000 in revenue.
From late December 2008 to January 2009, 1,275 coupons were redeemed with an average order of about $56 dollars resulting in $71,000 in revenue. The large jump in coupon redemption is from people ALSO using the previous coupon before it expired.
So the 2 mailings generated $94,000 in revenue in 2 months with project costs that totaled only $21,000, which includes postage. And the $94,000 doesn’t even factor in revenue generated from the coupons last year between holidays!
Some Takeaways
Obviously, results like this aren’t typical, but here is what we think is important to mention:
If it’s possible to promote your product or service with coupons, you should at least test coupon mailers. For retailers, this is a must.
The results above prove that customers pay attention to expiration dates. By using a 1-year expiration period, Devachan was able to get a double hit this holiday.
The economy this holiday was likely the cause of the reduction in Devachan’s average order per sale, but the mailer still managed to bring in a flood of coupon redemptions. Did the Soft-Feel coating help? It’s hard to say for sure, but it probably caused more people to at least fold open the piece to reveal the coupons.
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If you would like us to send you samples of the self-mailer featured in this case study, please send your address to: ryan (at) ballantine.com
Hi everyone, we’re done recording our 3rd video for this blog. It’s 2 minutes long and it talks about a new coating that is available called Soft-Feel that gives your direct mail piece a nice, velvety finish.
It’s a great way to take your existing control and add another dimension to it to see if it boosts response.
If you want samples of the Soft-Feel coating, please email Ryan: ryan (at) ballantine.com.
Click Here to view our June case study that features this self mailer.
The June 2008 issue of our Sample of the Month Newsletter features a case study from our client, Caesars Pocono Resorts.
The story centers around the 3-panel self mailers they use to generate room reservations. These mailers are the single largest driver of revenue for them.
The 3-panel self mailer pictured above measures 8.5″ (width) x 6″ (height) closed and opens up to 25″ (width) x 6″ (height). The paper is a coated stock and the piece is 4 colors on both sides.
Caesars Pocono Resorts mails out 3-panel self mailers to generate reservations for their various all-inclusive Pocono Mountains packages. They mail a total of 6 throughout the year and all are the same size, but vary in artwork and special promotions.
Strategy
Caesars Pocono Resorts sends them out when they know they want to push certain times or events. For example, they definitely push hard for New Year’s and Valentine’s Day, and then start focusing on the Spring, then Summer and then Fall. The mailers have a lot of staying power with their guests…they tend to hold on to them for a while.
Results
After each mailing, Caesars Pocono Resorts analyzes what segments of their mail file are doing well and which ones are not performing well. They look at the reports this year versus last year and, as a result, they try to send the mailers out as close as possible to the previous year.
It’s hard to gauge how well each mailer does versus each other because of additional factors such as the economy, special offers, seasonality, entertainers, etc. That being said, their profit ratio benchmark is 4:1 and their past winter campaign reached this goal with all 3 mailers (general Winter, New Year’s and Valentine’s Day).
Surprises
A lot of people say special offers driver mailers for obvious reasons, but Caesars Pocono Resorts finds that even regular rates generate good call volume…and entertainers are a bigger response factor for them. Also, their mailers have a really long shelf life. The minute the mailers hit mailboxes, they see the number of incoming calls in their call center jump, and reservations continue to trickle in for a long time (they use tracking phone numbers).
In fact, they sometimes get calls from members of their Forever Lovers loyalty program when they don’t get the mailers wondering where they are!
Future
Caesars Pocono Resorts will continue to mail out the self mailers along with a few other booklet type pieces. They are also testing some new things with the self mailers. For example, we just produced a mailing for them — their usual 3-panel mailer — but we applied our new Soft Feel coating on the paper that gives it a nice velvety finish.
We’re going to be producing a video about this new Soft Feel coating soon. Please subscribe to our email or RSS feed above if you want to receive updates when we post new content to this blog including videos, case studies, tips, news and more.
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Reminder: Did you read our new direct mail control report yet? It’s a 10-page PDF with information about what direct mail formats are working for other marketers in 2008. Click here to download.
The January 2009 issue of our ‘Sample of the Month’ direct mail case study features our client Devachan, a salon and spa that caters to curly-haired women.
The June 2008 issue of our Sample of the Month Newsletter features a case study from our client, 
