The most recent occurrence was a piece from Dish Network. The offer was a great promotional rate for 12 months because they miss me as a customer, and want me to return. The only problem of course is that I am a 7 year customer!! I did transfer my service in Missouri when I moved to Texas, but that was over a year ago! I didn't call to redeem the offer, but I would guess I would not be eligible - it was only open to new customers, without Dish services over the past 12 months.
Another example of wasted marketing dollars is from a local radiant barrier treatment company that continues to mail offers for their service - to their own past customers! These folks were already paying customers that absolutely have no reason to redeem the offer again - the treatment lasts for up to 25 years! I have a colleague that has received 6+ mail pieces from this company over the past 4 months.
I share these examples to show how companies (sometimes even big ones) waste money by overlooking a very simple step in their planning process for effective direct marketing. For those that love the creativity of planning the look and feel of a mail piece, thinking about the database will make them glaze over with boredom, but ridding past customers and using the cleanest possible data can make a huge difference on your response rates and subsequent ROI.
Do you want to protect that budget for next year? Send me an e-mail to learn more about our in house data cleansing and hygiene process.
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