Tuesday, May 25  

Costing of Direct Mail

Costs of Direct Mail

Hello. Hope you had a great weekend.

We had a very Australian weekend. After the bike ride and kids soccer, we headed into the bush to camp. We camped beside a creek, took a few walks and sat around the camp fire and chatted (and roasted marshmallows).

At sunup we were taking a walk along the river bank when we spotted a Platypus, a Kookaburra was chattering in the tree and a Kangaroo hopped by about 30 metres away.

Can you get any more Australian than that??!

Why so expensive?

A few people have emailed me asking why the $3.50 cost per letter in the mail out of the one I mentioned below. Some people saw that as being expensive - on reflection I was probably being too conservative!

Let's take a look at a mail out being completed yourself. We'll assume it's 1,000 letters.

1. Who are you going to send the letter to?

A database list of quality contacts targeted to whatever it is you are after, will be about 60 cents a name and address.

That's $600 right there.

Give yourself another hour to manipulate, import and arrange the database the way you want.

Factors in another 1/2 hour for discussions with your list broker. Add in a few phone calls.

We'll say $800.

2. Letter. Firstly someone has to write it. We'll assume you'll write it yourself. A good letter takes me at least 4 hours to write. We'll be cheap and hire your services out at $40 per hour.

So the letter is written. Great.
Next, we need to print it.
That's 1,000 pieces of paper. ($10)
And 1,000 letters worth of ink. ($40)
Wear and tear on the printer. ($25)
And a bit of time feeding the printer. ($40)
And 1,000 pieces of paper to fold. ($160)

Total is about $435.

3. Envelope

1,000 envelopes. ($10)
1,000 envelopes ink. ($12)
1 hour feeding the printer. ($40)
1,000 stamps. ($500)
3 hours for putting on the stamps. ($120)

Total: $682

4. Brochure

6 hours of your time for writing - $240
$400 for a graphic artist to do the artwork
$400 to print 1,000 (you're usually better off to print at least 5,000)
Another hour of your time to organsie - $40

Brochure = $1,080

5. Order form

Let's say 2 hours for development - $80
That's 1,000 pieces of paper. $10
And 1,000 letters worth of ink. $40
Wear and tear on the printer. $25
And a bit of time feeding the printer. $40
And 1,000 pieces of paper to fold. $160

6. Stuffing envelopes

1,000 envelopes to stuff - $160

That all adds up to $3,672

Direct mail can be expensive (especially if it doesn't work). Keep control of your costs as much as possible (i.e. you can outsource most of it for far cheaper than you can do itself usually). And measure those results.

Cheers

Brendon