You’ve probably heard the statistics about how many times a salesperson needs to contact a prospect to close a sale. Without getting into a long list of numbers, 90 percent of sales are closed on the fourth to 12th contact, but only 10 percent of salespeople make more than three contacts.
The accuracy of this data, which is attributed to the National Sales Executive Association, has been debated over the years, but the general takeaway is certainly valid. If you give up after one or two tries, you’ll lose the vast majority of sales. In the world of direct mail, you’ll be much more successful mailing 100 people eight times than 800 people once or 400 people twice.
Persistence and repetition are critical to closing the sale, and direct mail is no exception. But how many touchpoints does it take to close sale?
That could depend on the research you believe. The rule of thumb says seven touchpoints. In researching this article, we saw claims of five to seven, six to eight, and seven to 13. Others believe it could be much higher, given the saturated marketplace and the number of marketing messages the average consumer is exposed to each day.
The fact is, every industry is different. Target audiences, and segments within those audiences, are different. There is no magic number.
Also, keep in mind that multiple channels mean more opportunities for touchpoints. If you’re running an omnichannel campaign that integrates some combination of direct mail, mobile, email, social media, and other online channels, many of those touchpoints will occur online. This data needs to be tracked and tested to optimize performance and cost.
In addition to tracking touchpoints and frequency, you should be monitoring when those touchpoints occur, the creative and messaging used, and how your audience responds. Where are prospects engaging? Where are they abandoning? When do conversions start? When do they stop?
While the precise number of touchpoints required to convert or close a sale might be forever debated, there’s no debating the need for repetition — at least 5 mailings and probably more depending on your industry and audience.
If you fail to engage your audience on a regular basis, you risk being forgotten, much less losing the sale. The key is to integrate and coordinate touchpoint strategies across direct mail and other marketing channels and track all activity to determine how many touchpoints it should take to make a sale.
Want to learn more about how to maximize marketing performance, ROI and cost-efficiency? Contact us to schedule a consultation and unleash the power of direct mail.
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