Orlando, FL—The Direct Marketing Association on Oct. 13 released its first Response Rate Study, a 350-page book that polled all of the marketing channels represented by its membership. For the catalogers contacted among the 1,140 respondents, response ranged from 0.103% to 20%. But according to the report, catalogers were “consistently closer” to a benchmark of 4.1%.
Broken down, catalog response to house file mailings was 4.08% and 1.59% to prospect mailings. Revenue per contact averaged $4.40 for house file mailings and $1.50 for prospect mailings. As for revenue per order, catalog respondents on average took in $121.46 from house file customers and $121.44 for prospects’ orders. Catalogers’ cost per order averaged $21.23 for house file sales and $78.69 for prospects.
The average cost per catalog mailed was close to $0.60 for both house and prospect files. The profitability or return on investment index of house file mailings was 7.3, compared with 2.5 for mailings to prospect files.