March 2, 2011

Direct Mail Response Rates Held Steady in 2010

By EU Services

The DMA released its 2010 Response Rate Trends report in mid-June. This updated edition reflected the breadth of today’s direct marketing landscape, with full coverage for five media:

  • Direct Mail (five formats: letter-sized envelopes, postcards, oversized envelopes, dimensional, and catalogs)
  • Email
  • Paid Search
  • Internet Display
  • Telephone

Key findings include:

  • Response rates for Direct Mail have held steady over the past four years. Letter-size envelopes, for instance, had a response rate in 2010 of 3.42 % for a house list, and 1.38 % for a prospect list.
  • Nearly 60 % percent of direct mail campaigns in financial services aimed to produce a direct sale. The average response rate was a comparatively low 2.66 % to a house list, and 1.01 % to a prospect list.
  • Email to a house list averaged: a 19.47 % open rate; a 6.64 % click-through rate; a 1.73 % conversion rate; a bounce-back rate of 3.72 %; and an unsubscribe rate of 0.77 %.
  • Catalogs had the lowest cost per lead/order of $47.61, just ahead of inserts at $47.69, email at $53.85, and postcards $75.32.
  • Outbound telemarketing to prospects had the highest cost per order or lead of $309.25, but also had the highest response rate from prospects of 6.16 %. The highest response rate for a house list was also telephone, at 10.41 %.
  • Paid search had an average cost per click of $3.79, with a 3.81 % conversion rate. The conversion rate (after click) of Internet display advertisements was slightly higher at 4.43 %.
  • Response rates for B-to-B campaigns were generally higher than for B-to-C campaigns. Lead generation and high-end average sale campaigns also had higher response rates.

DMA’s 2010 Response Rate Trends report was conducted through a survey that was emailed in March and April 2010.  When the survey was closed, DMA had received 473 usable responses.

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