Return on Investment (ROI) or Rate of Return (ROR) means that if you go to college and pay a lot of money, you’ll eventually get it back in the near future with your new job, (or loose everything because of the recession.) The money paid is the investment; the money gained back (or lost) is the return. So in finance, ROI means the money lost, or gained on a certain investment, is relative to the amount of money invested.
Finding the ROI of a project can tell us how successful a business is, an advertising campaign, a purchase or any other investment made (besides paper clips) that is supposed to yield a return. True, most businesses have many expenses but not all of them can be considered as ROI. Purchasing office equipment for example, will not produce any revenue, but posting a classified ad on the weekend paper is an expense that might yield further income. Calculating ROI is Finance 101 and it can be done by simple mathematics and calculation of several factors.
Print ads and Direct Mail usually produce high ROI and especially today, when printing costs are lower than ever. If your direct mail ROI still lets you down, you might want to consider a few options that might elevate response rate and ROI:
1. Make a real offer. Don’t just go with the 10 discount. Slip inside the envelope something real like a membership card and if you’re brave enough to give your potential clients a free gift, you can expect higher ROI and response rates.
2. If you offer a gift, a discount or any promotional content, make the offer notable and easy to understand.
3. Make it personal. Keep it simple. Remember that you address people that just came home from work. Don’t bombard them with terminology. Speak like you would speak to someone you’ve just met on the street.
4. Forget clients or customers. Try “a client” and “a customer” instead. As a direct mailer, you are having a conversation with an individual and if you’re charming enough – you’ll make the sale.
5. Don’t sell your entire line. Just focus on one product that you really believe in.
6. Inside counts but outside counts even more. Make the package look exciting. Put a real stamp on it. It feels more personal. Use color, lively text and remember to keep it short and snappy.
7. Target your prospective clients, create a mailing list and keep it updated. Maintain your list, test it for responses and get rid of addresses that consistently decline your mail.
Wilen Direct recently installed 4 Kodak Stream printheads and is outputting 80,000 pieces of direct mail per hour, or 1.6 million pieces per day, on just one press. Wilen Direct is now able to provide clients with the most targeted and relevant communications by integrating increasingly sophisticated data metrics with production.
The result is improved return on investment (ROI), more accurate tracking and planning tools, and faster speed to market—all essential prerequisites for success. Visit www.wilendirect.com today, start utilizing this state of the art technology and maximize your ROI.
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