How long does it take to create an email?
Not that much, right?
And how long does it take for that email to get delivered?
Usually less than a minute, unlike direct mail, where you’d have to wait as long as three weeks to get your mail delivered.
Three weeks!
And before even sending it, direct mail guys have to wait on production for that mail, which usually takes 2-4 weeks.
Now, direct mail and email marketing are pretty much the same thing, email is just new kid on the block (not even new anymore).
I was going through some stuff from Gary Halbert on getting better responses from direct mail and one thing really stuck out to me:
Always test by mailing first class even if you are going to roll out using bulk!
What does he mean by that?
You see, doing direct mail campaigns take a lot of time and money to execute.
And testing is much more important because of that.
Put yourself in those shoes, you wouldn’t want to waste your time and money if the mail won’t give results.
Sending by first class ensures their mail gets delivered faster, so they can get results faster.
And then they can adjust if the mail isn’t doing good before they send it to their whole list.
Let’s go back to our emails.
In some cases, we’re able to see how campaign is performing inside the first hour.
An hour vs weeks…
Let me ask you this, how often do you send a test campaign to just one chunk of your list to see the results?
Be honest!
I’ve seen it so many times how email campaigns get blasted out to the whole list all at once.
Why does this happen?
Because sending emails is so damn cheap, there’s a lot less to lose and you get comfortable!
Unlike for those direct mail guys who have a lot more money and time to lose to get all the adjusted versions printed out and sent.
So they’re forced to focus on quality and maximizing that one campaign as much as possible.
This is why testing is so important for direct mail…and why speed was worth paying extra for those tests.
Time is money after all.
As I said, direct mail and email are almost the same thing.
A lot can be learned from direct mail.
Luckily for you and me, we don’t have to spend so much time and money and don’t have to wait weeks just to see how our email would perform.
We have it easy…
Focus on maximizing your email campaign by always running few tests to segments of your list and adjust the email as needed.
It’s easy to do and will definitely boost your overall campaign results.
Cheers,
Zoran