This school term we each have more choice in terms of media in terms of selling to schools, than ever before. There is so much choice in fact that even an attempt to boil everything down to the basics is difficult, but here’s the start of a rough attempt…

In this email I take the two services (one postal and one email) I would always start my campaign with.

Solo mailing:

The most expensive, but also the most responsive approach. Getting 2% or 3% sales off the page is not unknown for products up to £50.

So the calculation is simple – the cost of a solo mailing is about £450 per 1000 schools. And we have repeatedly found that it is possible you might get 20 or 30 replies to a well-written promotion sent to 1000 schools. Thus the question is, would those 20 to 30 sales make a profit for you if the promotion had cost you £450? If yes, it is worth a trial.

Therefore you might get to try 300 schools (cost around £140) and see if you get the replies you need. If yes, you can go on and mail the rest. If not, yes you have made a loss, but not a huge loss.

Solo mailings have the benefit also that they are incredibly flexible – you can choose all the schools with 15 year olds, or the private schools in the UK, or the primary schools with over 200 pupils, or the schools in certain post codes – or even the schools that don’t reply to emails.

Personal email list

The most expensive email approach, but again the most responsive. If you are thinking of emailing, I would always suggest you start here, because it is the one of the most responsive types of list available. If you can’t get sales here, then you certainly won’t with any of the lower priced email services.

A personal email campaign costs £180 per thousand, and response rates in terms of actual sales can be 1% to 2%, so again that calculation can be made. If you spend £180 and get 20 replies, is that profitable for you?

Personal email campaigns can also be used to get the reader to click through to your web site, which is very helpful indeed if you have a site that really does sell for you.

Personal email lists are extensive for secondary schools, where lists exist for most subjects. They are also developing for primary schools. The key point about them is that they are useful as a trial – as a way of getting your message right.

In other words, if you start by sending out your message to a generic list and you get a response rate of 0.3% (3 sales per 1000 emails) it is hard to know if the low response rate is due to the list you are using or the way in which the sales piece is written.

This doesn’t mean that generic email lists don’t have a value – they certainly do – but I believe it is worth trying out the message first in the personal lists, to ensure that you are getting the writing of the message right.

If you want to discuss these options (or indeed other options such as shared mailings, preference emails and so on) do give Hamilton House a call on 01536 399 000).