Why Direct Mail Still Wins With Rick Rappe, President and Owner of RPM Direct Marketing

14:53 John Corcoran:

So that’s I think.

14:54 Rick Rappe:

That’s something that’s pretty interesting.

14:56 John Corcoran:

So that that may flow us into the next question, which is going to be about attribution. If you do have people that you receive a mailer, they take a look at it, they maybe set it aside, they look at it later, and then they Google the the name of the company, they end up on their website and then become a customer. How do you deal with that kind of attribution? How do you it seems like it could get very messy very quickly.

15:20 Rick Rappe:

Yeah. That’s where we want to make sure that we’re looking at a comparable group that probably didn’t get the direct mail that, that, that non mailed control group is really helpful because we can study Well, what are people doing without the direct mail? And then we look at what are they doing with the direct mail. And you can see the lifts in different channels and see where the where people are coming through. I mean, obviously we want to have our tracking and, and processes as buttoned up as possible so that we’re getting good tracking and good attribution.

Part of that is working with the, working with the call center or the sales organization to understand the importance of tracking and to build that into your training process so that they know, okay, I start the call every time by asking for, hey, this is AT&T. Can you give me your offer code? And once you have that system built and really everyone understands why it’s so important, then it becomes a lot easier to get that direct tracking, which is really, really helpful. But we work with every client to kind of understand their organization and understand and help them build the right tracking and the right attribution model and the right processes to get good data, because direct mail is so powerful, because it can be so data driven, but you really have to be able to trust that data. Otherwise it, you know, that process breaks down.

16:50 John Corcoran:

Right. All right. So for someone who may be watching this and considering using this methodology that you’ve been outlining, outlining here, what’s the level of commitment that they need to have? You know, if they’re considering it, you know, it doesn’t seem like something that they could just kind of do as a side little whim. Like there needs to be some level of internal commitment in order for them to, you know, get these results for their company.

17:18 Rick Rappe:

Yeah. Well, I think a lot of our clients come to us and they know that direct mail is working for their competitors, but they haven’t been able to make it work themselves. And in that situation, that’s a good that’s a great situation to be in because they know that they’re they just haven’t found the right process yet. All the big successful direct mail programs out there, I believe, are built on this foundation of testing and optimization. And so they have to be able to you have to be able to answer key questions about targeting, about offer, about messaging, you know, which, which, which is going to work the best this over this.

It’s sort of a B testing, but we take a B testing to and continue to, you know, do it on a much broader scale. So I think the important thing for people to think about when they’re thinking about testing direct mail is they have to understand that there’s a, there needs to be a research and development phase at the beginning to build a successful program. And so that’s where the first program is an investment and you’re. You’re going through it with not necessarily the goal of like, I have to hit stellar results from this entire program, but you’re wanting to find the cells within the program that hit stellar results. And then from there, those things become very obvious and accessible. 

And then you can scale those and go back with predictive, you know, predictions and predictive results. And you can just mail that part that wins and, and roll it out at a larger quantity. So you have to go through that research, research and development phase to get as much data as you can as quickly as you can. And then from there, you roll it out. I mean, the alternative is, and we see a lot of companies do this iterative testing where I’m going to test a postcard with one offer and do one thing at a time, and they send that out and they’re like, yeah, that didn’t really work. 

Okay, well, what do we do next? Well, they do something else next. And, you know, it’s a three months later, two months later, and it’s not a head to head test with what they did before. So it’s hard to read the results. And iterative testing is, is really difficult and super slow. 

So and a lot of companies honestly have walked away from direct mail thinking that it doesn’t work. And it’s, it’s not that it doesn’t work. It’s just that they didn’t do it right. They didn’t come at it with the right approach. So you have to you have to think about it almost as a scientist and go, yeah, there’s a winning there’s a winning combination here. 

I just have to find it. And I have to be willing to lead my team through this research and development phase and explain to the board that there’s a research and development phase. And then once once everybody gets that in their mind, then it makes a lot more sense. And it’s when you think about it, testing and doing a lot of testing all up front, it’s way lower risk than doing one thing at a time. I mean, one thing at a time is like standing up at the bat and swinging for the fences. 

And you only have one pitch. I mean, that doesn’t make any sense, right?

20:36 John Corcoran:

So I’m constantly fascinated by human nature because people do things that we don’t expect them to do. How often are you surprised by the results? You’re like, okay, we’re sending out five different offers. I’m certain that this one’s going to be the winner. How often do you come back and you’re like, I didn’t expect that.

20:53 Rick Rappe:

Oh, quite a bit. I mean, quite a bit. I mean, there’s certain things that after all these years of testing that we know works, work pretty consistently. And so we definitely try to lead our clients to those things right off, right off the bat. But we do still do a lot of testing with different copy platforms and different ways of positioning the offer.

And, you know, we’re frequently surprised by the results. That’s why we don’t just make one single recommendation. It’s the methodology that works. It’s not necessarily our expertise that works. But I think that, you know, we have to be we have to be consistent and apply the methodology. 

And then we know that with the with the right approach, we get a 99% success rate. That’s what that’s what really matters at the end of the day.

21:45 John Corcoran:

Yeah, yeah. Rick, this has been great. Where can people go? For those who don’t know, where can they go to learn more about you and learn more about RPM?

21:56 Rick Rappe:

Well, you’d find me on LinkedIn for sure. And rpmdm.com is our website, and they can shoot me a message through the website or on LinkedIn. And I’m happy to give anyone a free consultation, a free review of what they’re doing and try to explain how we can help.

22:17 John Corcoran:

Great. Rick. Thanks so much.

22:20 Rick Rappe:

Thank you.