How to Use Direct Response Post Card Decks as a Valuable Market Research Tool

Market research specialists have discovered a new tool which enables them to quickly identify target market cells, measure buyer acceptance, test new product or service concepts quickly and inexpensively and survey market characteristics...the Direct Response Card Deck.

For two to four cents per contact, the researcher can now gather market intelligence from both specialized vertical markets (lawyers, doctors, etc.) or broad based horizontal markets (all marketing executives across industry lines). In addition, these same markets can now be tested in such confined geographical areas as business executives in Hawaii or professionals in Minneapolis.

Not only does the marketer overcome one of the traditional problems in research--test sizes... he or she also reaps the huge advantage of accurate measurability and accountability. Since all responses can be directed back to the research organization, market feedback is both quick and accurate.

Many firms have difficulty in obtaining statistically significant samplings through traditional channels because of budget restrictions.

It's not uncommon for important strategy decisions to be made on the basis of sampling as few as 2,000 names out of a universe of several million potential buyers. This is risky at best. It could lead to marketing disaster based on serious sampling error, or wrong conclusions drawn from insufficient data.

With direct response card packs, it is now possible to test or survey as many as 100,000 potential buyers for as little as $2,000 or less. For the direct marketer this results in meaningful figures which are both statistically significant and forecastable.

Proper analysis of this larger sampling should result in strategy decisions which are more accurate, more meaningful, more valid, and more profitable for the direct marketer.

The ability to order and conduct true A/B (or more) split run tests of offers, prices, etc. has important implications for the creative team.

The marketing intelligence gathered through card packs can be a valuable road map to success. Critically important data, discovered through card deck advertising, can determine the answers to such questions as:

==> Have we targeted to the correct audience?

==> Is the audience responsive to the degree necessary to maximize potential profitability?

==> Do we have the right combination of offer, price, copy, graphics, headlines, terms, etc.?

==> Are the response/profit characteristics such that they justify testing such other direct response media as direct mail, space or broadcast advertising?

==> Is there potential for a variation of this product/service to be marketed to a closely related audience?

==> What is the potential for back-end profits from related item sales?

==> Are we barking up the wrong tree? Should we cut our losses now and thank our luck stars that we were able to discover, inexpensively, that we were wrong?

While the advantage of card decks as a market research tool outweigh the disadvantages, there are some restrictions you need to be aware of:

1. The card itself is small (about 3"x5") and as such restricts your ability to test such things as long copy and multiple option offers. Some decks provide larger format sizes with the ability to do fold-over inserts which provide more space, but these options are at a substantial premium in price. The small space can work to your advantage because it forces you to limit your testing to those factors that have the most profound affect on response and profitability...i.e. offer and price, for example.

2. Color reproduction, if it is important to your product, is not always the best. The conventional .007 Hi Bulk paper stock normally used in card decks is not the best choice for color printing. Most deck publishers, however, offer a coated stock option and you may find it useful.

3. Response rates are,on the average, lower in card decks (1/4th of one percent to 1 percent) than they might be in a free standing direct mail package. On the surface this may appear to be a disadvantage. In fact it is not.

Your goal in market research/testing is to obtain statistically significant data across the broadest sampling possible...consistent with budgetary limits.

Card decks allow you to achieve this goal, precisely. It's much better to have a 1/4th of 1% response from a 100,000 name universe (250 responses) than to have a 12.5% (250 responses) from a small 2,000 name test cell. Although the total numbers are the same, the former example gives you a truer picture of market conditions and possible product/service acceptance.

In summation, we have found that direct response card decks, if used properly, can be ideal market research tools. Card decks are inexpensive to use. They give quick accurate and projectable results. They reduce the risk of sampling error, and the resulting data is both statistically significant and inherently more valid.

There's only one way to know for sure...test it!

©Copyright 2005 Thom Reece All Rights Reserved

Thom Reece is the CEO of Online Marketing Group, a Hawaii based direct response marketing and web development firm. His primary website, the Online Marketing Resource Center [http://www.e-comprofits.com] is visited by thousands of marketers daily. For a free subscription to Thom Reece's Web Marketing Strategies & Techniques Newsletter go to: http://www.WMSTDirect.com

mailto:thom@e-comprofits.com

---

4 Alternative Ways To Gain Lifetime Customers

You will always have more people that turn down your... Read More

7 Great Ways to Market Yourself and Your Business to Help Increase Sales

Do you own a business and need ideas on how... Read More

10 Proven Ways To Accelerate Your Profits

1. Make copies of your web site in many different... Read More

Maximizing Your Yellow Page Investment

Yellow Page users are the hottest of all prospects ?... Read More

Mortgage Marketing - How to Write a Mortgage Marketing Sales Letter That Gets Results!

Have you ever sat down to write a sales letter... Read More

Design, Design, Design

You need only one card, but make it noticeable. Make... Read More

Top 7 Ways to Get Your Products in the Hands of Celebrities

Celebrities are the tastemakers that drive brand awareness and usage.... Read More

Why You Buy, Part Two

More of the findings of the recent studies in behavioral... Read More

How Nearly Going Broke Taught Me The Value Of Niche Marketing

If you want to learn how effective Niche Marketing can... Read More

Maslows Marketing Filter

One of the basics of all marketing and advertising training... Read More

Fundamental Strategic Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

This is a pretty tough global economy and it is... Read More

8 Secrets to Marketing Success

The profits of a business are totally dependent on marketing.... Read More

Motivate Your Market Force

IntroWant me to tell you something on how you can... Read More

Blowing Your Own Horn

Opportunity Assistance Business Resource Center At first you must think... Read More

How to Save Time and Achieve More by Creating High-Leverage Marketing Assets

The single biggest, non-renewable asset you have is your time.... Read More

Fundraising Letters Are Easier To Write With AIDA

Learn a lesson from professional direct mail copywriters. They follow... Read More

Corporate Branding and Trade Shows - 8 Tips for Marketing Managers

Trade shows are part of the marketing mix and the... Read More

Lessons Learned at the Harvard Business School

"If God wanted to create a perfect punishment for a... Read More

Target Your Market

Your market is not everybody, as so many small businesses... Read More

Use Events to Market on the Internet

Having difficulty knowing what to offer people online? Worried that... Read More

Top 10 Benefits of Hiring a Marketing Writer to Write Your Marketing Materials

1. It costs less to delegate to a professional than... Read More

New Years Revolution

No, that's not a typo in the title. Resolutions are... Read More

Writing To Overpower Your Competition

"We don't have any competition. We're a truly a one-of-a-kind... Read More

Hermey Wants To Be A Dentist

December marked the 40th anniversary of the original broadcast of... Read More

The Fundraising Letter PS: 25 Powerful Things To Say There (Includes Examples & Samples)

Donors read postscripts. This is a sad but important reality... Read More

6 MUST Have Strategies To Make Big Bucks with Big Ticket Items

Strategy #1: Change Your Mindset That's right, change your mindset!... Read More

Raise Your Income!

How often do you sit around and wonder how to... Read More

Keeping your Business Card visible

Famous quotes that keep you thinking.Have you ever listened to... Read More

Making Your Mark With The Millennials

Generation Y--The second-largest crop of young people in America's history,... Read More

How Can I Get Name Recognition?

Some of the ways in which to get your "name... Read More

The Marketing Plan and the Four P?s

The Marketing Plan section of the business plan demonstrates how... Read More

Attracting Clients With Incremental Marketing

Do you ask prospective clients to go too far?Must your... Read More

3 Ways to Gain and KEEP Customers Using Postcards

In today's competitive (sometimes cutthroat) marketplace, savvy business owners need... Read More