DMA: 2006 Response Rate Trends Report.

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) released its 2006 Response Rate Trends Report, containing some of the most sought-after data on the benchmarks of successful direct marketing campaigns.

“In providing research and information about direct marketing, our most asked questions are what is a typical response rate and what channel will yield the best response for a particular direct marketing campaign,” said Anna Chernis, DMA’s senior research manager. “This report provides a dependable and robust benchmark for a wide range of industries and campaign types.”

In the report, four direct marketing objectives are isolated and reported on separately: direct order, lead generation, traffic building, and fundraising.

The report also provides breakouts by direct marketing channel and type of list used (house file vs. prospect), as well as the market (consumer vs. business-to-business) and the industry being advertised.

Among the findings of this year’s report:

· Direct Order & Fundraising: For direct marketers whose primary objective was to solicit direct-order sales or motivate customers to make a contribution, Catalog (2.30%) and Direct Mail (2.18%) produced the highest response rates.

· Lead Generation: Telephone (2.60%) and E-mail (2.45%) produced the highest response rates for direct marketers whose primary objective was to generate leads.

·Traffic Building: Catalog (10.34%) and Telephone (7.83%) have the highest response rates for traffic building, although these figures are based on a small sample of only five campaigns for Catalog and four campaigns for Telephone.

·House File v. Prospects: House-file campaigns generally outperformed prospecting campaigns.

·Consumer v. Business-to-Business Markets: When used for direct-order generation and fundraising, Direct Mail and Catalog work better in consumer markets. Other media, however, reported their highest response rates in the business-to-business market. Lead-generation and traffic-building campaigns both reported higher response rates for consumer audiences vs. B-to-B.

Seven Media, 19 Industry Categories, 30 Products & Services

The DMA 2006 Response Rate Trends Report includes data for more than 1,500 campaigns received in 2004, 2005 and 2006. For the first time, the report includes trend overviews.

The report looks at seven media channels that may have been used solo or in combination to achieve specific campaign objectives: direct mail (flat), catalog, e-mail, inserts, outbound telephone, newspaper, and magazine.

In addition, information is provided for 19 major industry categories consistent with the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), as well as a selection of 30 specific products and services.

For more information at http://www.the-dma.org