Project Details
Project Description
DRIVE RESULTS
MPS developed a promotional campaign to provide an increase in response rate. The on-going campaign afforded the proper call to action for highly targeted mailings and simultaneously reduced mailing costs.
Situation
Franchisees from a Supplemental Education Service Provider needed an SAT/ACT promotional campaign. The objective of the campaign was to attract SAT/ACT aged students to enroll in their classes.
Task
MPS researched the SAT/ACT program for a representative sampling of the franchisees. The due diligence paid off because MPS learned that the number of weeks to complete the prep program varied by franchisee. Therefore, the call to action needed to use variable enroll-by dates to ensure that the students completed the coursework prior to taking the SAT/ACT.
Action
Each of the franchisees received a marketing kit from MPS that included a sample postcard. The variable data portion of the postcard used two separate calls to action. The first call to action announced the date of the SAT/ACT while the second “Enroll-By Date” accounted for the length of the prep course.
To reduce mailing costs and provide greater targeting of the postcard campaign, MPS recommended using a Special Select when acquiring the mail list. The Special Select cost a little more but provided households with SAT/ACT age children. The typical 5,000 household mailing quantity for these mailings didn’t make sense for a large percentage of the franchisees. Many of the franchisee’s Special Select lists produced far less than 5,000 households.
Lastly, the participating franchisees could pool the printing of their postcards to reduce the unit cost for each card.
Result
The overall campaign offered reduced mailing costs for each franchisee by using the Special Select mail list and volume print pricing. The highly targeted postcard with the proper call to action provided the best chance for an improved response rate. After receiving their marketing kit, one franchisee from Texas responded with “Now this is marketing!”
