"Telephone marketing produces a higher response rate over all other media"

• "Telephone marketing produces a higher response rate over all other media." The media with the highest average response rate in 2005 was telephone reporting at 8.55% and DRTV (Direct Response Television) at 8.14%.

"Outbound telephone campaigns average over 8% response rate for Catalog and Retail Store industry"

• "Outbound telephone campaigns average over 8% response rate for Catalog and Retail Store industry." Campaigns for this industry segment in 2005 reported an average 8.38% response rate¹.

"A personalized phone call delivers the highest response rate for Direct Order, Lead Generation, Traffic Building and Fundraising campaigns"

• "A personalized phone call delivers the highest response rate for Direct Order, Lead Generation, Traffic Building and Fundraising campaigns¹"

  Direct Order – For those direct marketers whose primary objective was to solicit direct order sales, telephone marketing again produced the highest response rate of 6.41%.
  Lead Generation – Telephone marketing (8.25%) and dimensional mail (5.40%) were again strong in response rate averages.
  Traffic Building – Catalogs pull ahead in response rate pack for traffic building category especially in multimedia campaigns with direct mail pulling 5.84% and telephone 4.64%.
  Fundraising –A wide mix of media is commonly used for fundraising with direct mail being the most widely reported. New to the mix this year was telephone, which reported a whopping 24.13% response average.

"Customizing messages relevant to target customers will produce higher response rates"

• "Customizing messages relevant to target customers will produce higher response rates." For those media where there is a greater capability to more relevantly reach a customer — catalog, telephone and mail — the likelihood of a higher response rate is to be expected¹.

"Telephone is the most popular response vehicle among buyers of health services"

• "Telephone is the most popular response vehicle among buyers of health services." Health services marketers evenly focused on lead generation and direct order campaigns relied most on direct mail (flat, dimensional and postcards), email and search engine marketing as their key media. It is reported however that among buyers of health services, the telephone was the most popular response vehicle contributing 38.5% of the total response rate over other media used¹.

"Fundraising campaigns using telephone media reported a whopping 24.13% response average"

• "Fundraising campaigns using telephone media reported a whopping 24.13% response average." A wide mix of media is commonly used for fundraising with direct mail being the most widely reported. New to the mix this year was telephone, which reported a whopping 24.13% response average¹.

"What’s the formula for measuring effectiveness of your marketing campaigns? Find out here…"

• Response Rate Formulas¹
  Response rate (%) = Number of orders (or leads, if applicable) ÷ promotion quantity
  Revenue per contact ($) = Total revenue ÷ promotion quantity
  Promotion cost per contact ($) = Promotion cost ÷ promotion quantity
  Revenue per order ($) = Total revenue ÷ Number of orders
  Cost per order ($) = Promotion cost ÷ Number of orders
  Cost per lead ($) = Promotion cost ÷ Number of leads
  ROI index (#) = Revenue per contact ÷ promo cost per contact
  

• "Non-Profit organizations benefit significantly from telephone campaigns, averaging 19.75% response¹."
• "Multimedia campaigns where telephone media is combined with direct-mail produces a significant rise in customer response rates¹."
• "Campaign results using a combination of email and telephone offer the greatest opportunity to increase overall response rates¹."
• The combination of email and telephone provided the most dramatic results on the DMA’s analysis of Response Rates in combination campaigns versus single media campaigns. It was noted that the combination of email and telephone reflected the greatest opportunity to marketers hoping to increase overall response rates.¹
• "Response rates for direct mail campaigns are significantly increased when telephone is added to the media mix¹."
• Considering the question of profitability, telephone is the highest responder and the most efficient medium for all direct marketers, delivering an ROI index of 42.4 in 2005².
• In terms of revenue per contact for direct order marketers, telephone led the list, delivering $45.37².
• "For all industries, telephone marketing produced the highest response rate by far, as it did in 2005²

• By some industry estimates, prescriptions that have to be Returned-to-Shelf cause Pharmacy retailers to lose over $5 Billion in revenues⁵.
• A recent Kaiser Family Foundation study found that one third of seniors likely turn to their pharmacist for advice about the Medicare drug program⁴.
• According to Datamonitor, patients not taking medication or fulfilling a prescription in the first place cost the pharmaceutical industry over $30 billion a year in lost revenue⁶.
• On average, pharmacies return 5-8% of filled prescriptions to the shelf (14-18 per day) because patients fail to pick up their prescriptions⁵. (Industry Estimate).
• More than 125,000 people in the US alone die each year due to prescription medication non compliance⁴.

• "80% of sales are made after the fifth contact with a prospect³"
• Trade show and event marketers are generating excellent results using the telephone, but underperforming in direct mail and e-mail, their other key communications media².

1. The DMA 1005 Response Rate Report: October 2005. The Direct Marketing Association, Inc.
2. ExpoWeb, May 2005. Ruth P. Stevens is the author of Trade Show and Event Marketing, and teaches marketing to grad students at Columbia Business School.
3. The Sales and Marketing Executives International; Webpronews.com. 2005
4. National Community Pharmacist Association (www.ncpanet.org)
5. National Association of Chain Drug Stores (www.nacds.org)
6. Datamonitor. A leading provider of online database and analysis services for key industry sectors. (www.Datamonitor.com)

To compile the data, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) collected input from 1,406 marketers across all industries about their 2004 campaign results: quantity, cost, response, and revenue generated. They then sorted the results by media and also broke them out by industry.

The study reports response-rate data on 12 communications media, both addressable media and those that communicate anonymously. Among the addressable media were direct mail, dimensional mail, catalogs, e-mail, telephone and inserts. Nonaddressable media included coupons, newspapers, FSIs (the free-standing inserts often found in Sunday newspapers), magazines, direct response television and radio.

Show marketing is reported under the general sector of education, which included 42 campaigns. Of these, nine campaigns were submitted from trade show, conference and seminar companies. Keep in mind that nine campaigns are insufficient to draw final conclusions about the entire picture for show marketers. A full copy of the report is available for $395. Contact The DMA at http://www.the-dma.org/bookstore/.