What % is a good response rate for targeted flyers?
A friend is helping small businesses with flyer distribution and is getting some negative feedback from some small business customers in regards to the lack of responses they are receiving from their flyers, which are being placed into targeted "Goodie Bags".
The products are all domestic, targeted towards young mothers of preschool age children.
I know there are a whole bunch of variables. (no need to cover this aspect)
Also each company participating will have different expectations.
We are unsure how to provide a reasonable response to their remarks, other than the general fall back position "responses vary due to the variables."
Likewise, we are unsure what the current response "benchmarks" are these days.
Your comments would be very much appreciated.
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May 28, 2015
A good response rate for targeted flyers should be in the 2-3% range. This assumes that the flyers are printed in 4-color process ink, you have a good offer, and the targeted list is current with contact names.
May 27, 2015
With post cards and targeted marketing list .5 to 5% is standard. Well targeted list maybe 8%. And numbers also make a difference. The larger the sample list the better the response. Flyers i would expect the same kind of response. Hand delivered to the person vs door hung or counter given will make a difference also. Also the flyer needs to have at least three different products/services that are not related to give the customers a choice.
May 26, 2015
I think you need to look at the response rate and the conversion rate, especially with smaller clients. If the response rate is 2% (industry norm still for direct response), but the conversion is low (less than 30%), then there may be a sales issue on the business owner end. However, if the response rate is around 2% and the conversion is high, then the cost of sale is probably in line.
May 26, 2015
Obviously he might have a negative feedback from another. That mean you doesn't follow some steps...or criteria of segmentation!
you need to know your people (clients): that mean some of don't like advertising through paper flyer; other prefered on Tv than this.
Second, what kind of the business you are doing; because not all business need flyer, just fixe business name and purpose clearly for your costumers then you can think on percent after those.
May 24, 2015
Hi George, I think in the end it's the content of the flyer that matters. Especially when it's targeted towards the domestic market and in this case young mothers or families.
I think John M. Hall had a good point. A decent response rate for flyers is 1 - 3% but there is a way not to only improve the response rate but to also measure it. I believe if your friend would come back with this suggestion, she might get another shot at it:
Ask the company to change the flyer (not the content, although it might be worth having a look at the content anyway...) and to add a gift voucher of a product or service they are selling. This could be a smaller version of the service, a trial, a small gift for getting back to them etc. The customer would need to present the voucher to the company in order to get their gift. In this case they can measure how many returns they get and it's up to the company and their sales team to sell additional products and services to the customers afterwards.
It's important not to approach this with asking customers to like the company on facebook and they will send you this gift...that will not work. You would want to get the customer into the door so that you can sell additional products and services.
But at least the client would be able to measure the success rate of their flyers. A simple flyer in todays world will not do the trick. The company needs to put some money into this promotion and show their customers that they matter.
The return rate then should go up to 4 - 8% which would result in a decent return for the company.
I hope this is a bit helpful. I'm happy to have a chat with you and/ or your friend and give her some more suggestions that might help. Connect on LinkedIn if you wish and ask your friend to contact me. Always happy to have a chat and help somebody out.
Good luck to your friend
Carsten
May 23, 2015
That's a trick question. The best answer is a good response rate is one where the profit exceeds the expenses of the campaign. That might be .05% or 25% and the average percentile is a meaningless metric.
There is a huge difference between selling a $5 item and a $100 item, let alone selling cars or houses. But suffice to say, the less expensive the product is, the higher the response rate is to break even. To emphasize my point, you could distribute 100,000 flyers and profit from one sale if its a Lamborghini that you sell. That's a successful .001% response rate. ; )
May 24, 2015
Thank's for your comment, Wayne. I like your logic. Keeping in mind that the company is talking about "Response" and not "Conversion" Naturally the response rate will be higher than the conversion rate, but the logic holds true.
May 23, 2015
In my experience an average response to flyers is 0.5%. The response can be increased to 1-5% with an outstanding headline (NOT the company logo) and an irresistible offer. Most flyers present the features of the product and don't give the reader any reason to take action. The best responses I've had are when the desired action gives instant gratification, like downloading an app for free.
May 24, 2015
Mike, thanks for the comments, Like all of the others I have passed them on, without my comments.
You are right, in this case the client provided their own flyers. Which I have not seen
Part of the problem is the client generally believes they have the "Best" flyer's.
I have provided typical responses to help my friend, I always cover the key points you have indicated.
When I am doing a flyer, I always try to answer the hidden question "what's in it for me" Plus the other points you have stated.
May 23, 2015
The response rate is much lower...you should expect about a 1% - 2%. Here is link to site.
http://paperjay.com/2014/05/how-many-flyers-do-you-need/
Here is another site that further substantiates the 1% - 2%
http://www.mccarthyandking.com/direct-marketing-tutorials/learning-direct-mail-response-rates
You may need to copy and paste the links. Hope this helps!
May 24, 2015
Hi John, many thanks for your comments and the links.
Both are great, the second link even more so. I have forwarded both on to my friend.
I know that she will use them in order to strengthen her position.
It's like they say "Don't shoot the messenger" which is kinda what's happening here.
In fact her client is considering not using her services next time. Which would be a pity as she is doing a great job in gathering new intrested contacts each time.
May 23, 2015
Benchmarks don't mean a whole lot in my opinion.
Who wrote the copy of the flyers? Do they all say the same thing?
A lack of response tells me the message to your target market might not be correct. You need to talk problem-solution-result in your messaging using the conversion equation of interrupt-engage-educate-offer.
May 24, 2015
Walter, you are right, there are so many variables. In this case, The client produced their own flyers. So as I have not sighted it, I can not make a direct comment, other than to state the obvious, and the general comments, that you are alerting to. Hence the question to the learned members, Knowing something is different than showing someone what you know, but stated by others.
May 23, 2015
51% is a good response rate for targeted flyers.
I would say if the negative feedback is bigger than the positive feedback than that's a problem and it would require a huge a change in order to make customers happy, also by doing that; you might risk losing the customers that were happy it before.
However; if the positive feedback was bigger than the negative ones by even 1% that is just great start and you'll have to just keep improving because that's already a success.
Focus on the happy customers and know why they are happy and use that as a leverage to respond to the negative feedbacks.
Good luck. Let me know if you need any help.
May 24, 2015
Tarek, thanks for your contribution, I wish that 51% was a realistic number, if it was we would all save a lot of paper. In saying that I know that "Targeted Flyers" have a much higher response rate that non targeted flyers. Would'nt it be nice if we could receive 99% response from Targeted flyers, (the other 0.1% lost theirs) This is possibly the clients expectation. However reality and past experiences tells us otherwise. As shown by the other comments.
Hi Carsten, Thanks for your good suggestions, I will forward your comments, plus I will add that I think this is a good approach, As her client is only providing flyers, I am also going to suggest that she offers to place them (the re worked flyers) for free, Which should not be a big cost, but will provide some "good will" also With the changes of the flyer, her client will be able to see just what we are talking about.