The same tough question always appears around this time of year: “Should I be mailing through the Christmas season?”
Warning! Here comes a non-committal answer: “It depends”
Everyone markets a different product and service, and what works for some doesn’t work for others. It really comes down to the fundamentals of knowing your product and knowing your market, then proving your hypothesis with testing.
For example, businesses don’t typically like to make a lot of big changes during the holiday season, so B2B products like staffing services, insurance plans, equipment sales, etc. may view the holidays as a poor time to market.
But then again, those same businesses often start their budgeting for the new year around this time, so maybe it’s a perfect time to get in front of them. It’s common to have conflicting opinions, so in this situation what do you do?
A preferred approach is to make a list and map out the pros and cons. If the results come back one sided, an overwhelming “no”, then maybe it’s not the right time to market. However, if the results are mixed it sounds like you should be testing.
Testing doesn’t have to be hugely expensive to be effective. Targeting a small but measurable group of prospects or existing customers can give you enough information to tell you if your hypothesis is correct or requires some adjusting.
When possible, you should try to keep your testing empirical by using an offer you have benchmarked in the past. But you could always throw caution to the wind and test something specifically created for the holidays. Just know that your results could be skewed by the offer, or affected by the time of the year. If you’re mixing elements in your testing, you have to take all your results with a grain of salt, as it will be difficult to tell which element was the determining factor.
Being empirical in your testing is important, but missing a chance to boost your sales because you are being too cautious can also be detrimental. Find the mix that works right for you and test whenever you can afford to.
And remember, if all of this seems like too much to manage feel free to reach out to JR Direct for help. We apply our years of experience to your direct mail campaign to maximize results and minimize cost. Get in touch with us for help with your next Direct Mail Campaign.
