The Do-It-Yourself Marketing-Effort Analysis

 

MD MARYLAND 5 60 1 $50.00 $0.83

ME MAINE 1 1 10 2 $8,900.00 $890.00

MI MICHIGAN 1 16 7 98 7 $3,955.00 $40.36

MN MINNESOTA 1 7 13 94 2 $1,450.00 $15.43

MO MISSOURI 1 3 8 149 4 $2,175.00 $14.60

MS MISSISSIPPI 17 157 4 $1,495.00 $9.52

MT MONTANA 1 5 8 1 $110.00 $13.75

MX MEXICO 0

NC N.CAROLINA 3 12 166 8 $2,446.00 $14.73

ND N. DAKOTA 1 5 $0.00

NE NEBRASKA 7 26 3 $3,250.00 $125.00

NH NEW HAMPSHIRE 2 13 $0.00

NJ NEW JERSEY 1 9 23 126 6 $1,095.00 $8.69

NM NEW MEXICO 1 3 1 36 116 4 $535.00 $4.61

NV NEVADA 1 17 38 $0.00

NY NEW YORK 1 1 32 10 250 11 $4,430.00 $17.72

OH OHIO 4 15 333 9 $1,660.00 $4.98

OK OKLAHOMA 16 3 2 6 310 12 $6,485.00 $20.92 (8)

ON ORION(1) 2 31 $10,433.00

OR OREGON 21 48 4 $3,400.00 $70.83

PA PENNSYLVANIA 2 5 14 139 7 $1,840.00 $13.24

RI RHODE ISLAND 6 3 34 $0.00

SC S. CAROLINA 4 1 46 1 $675.00 $14.67

SD SOUTH DAKOTA 13 2 $460.00 $35.38

TN TENNESSE 1 13 151 5 $1,350.00 $8.94

TX TEXAS 29 25 26 38 1,650 97 $47,803.00 $28.97

UT UTAH 1 27 59 $0.00

VA VIRGINIA 4 11 10 124 2 $475.00 $3.83

VT VERMONT 1 18 $0.00

WA WASHINGTON 2 3 1 15 146 7 $2,810.00 $19.25

WI WISCONSIN 6 10 56 5 $685.00 $12.23

WV WEST VIRGINIA 1 5 5 33 1 $250.00 $7.58

WY WYOMING 1 4 1 $125.00 $31.25

TOTAL CALLS 78 47 (3) 237 864 0 7238 813 $306,030.00

2860 3531

COST OF ADVERTISING(4) $600.00 $15,000.00 $358.00 No Old 800# (10) 4323 Mci Invoices 342

Total Ad Cost $3,164.00 Net Sales $193,402.00

COST PER CALL(5) $0.21 $4.25 $1.51 $0.95 Close Rate 4.73% (8)

Adj Cost/Call $0.73 % Of Total Sales 63.20% (9)

Ron Sturgeon analyzes his call-summary report:

1. About 5% of our business is from the Dallas/Fort Worth area. We use "E7" to isolate those retail results, so our local success doesn't skew the Texas figures. Orion, Compass, and Kolt are national computer networks that wrecking yards use to find the salvaged parts that we and our competitors stock. Those aren't our best customers, so we track their performance separately.

2. The columns list the number of phone calls we've gotten from each state in response to the direct-mail piece or ad we're tracking.

3. We've received 47 calls this month in response to a BMW poster, and 3,531 to date. There isn't much change from last month, so we know the mailing is still working. But when it drops to 43, and then 39, we'll think about another mailing.

4. This is the cost that's been accrued this month. Promos like "BMW poster" and "salvage directory" were paid for in earlier months, and that cost isn't listed. But our computer knows that cost, and every month, it recalculates the cost per call.

5. After analyzing the cost per call as well as the cost per sale, we found the results ranked the magazines the same either way. The cost per call is easier to track, and all we need is a ranking.

6. The closing rate for a particular ad is hard to measure, but the geographic closing rate is obvious -- we got eight calls from Montana and we wrote one invoice. That's 8 to one, a very good closing rate.

7. I like to see a call-to-invoice ratio of 10 to one or better, but I look at this column also. Hawaii has a 9-to-one closing rate, but the average sale is only $6.22. Oklahoma's closing rate is 26 to one, but the average sale is $20.92. So we'll keep marketing there because the average invoice is higher.

8. This total closing-rate number shows the percentage of calls that result in actual sales. We get it by dividing 342 "MCI invoices," which are long-distance calls that result in sales, by 7,238, the total number of long-distance calls. This number is less important to me than the state-by-state rates are. It includes calls that we aren't even tracking on this report, so it encompasses such a big sample that it's good only for looking at trends. If it's 4.73 one month, then 4.63, and then 4.54, I know my overall plan isn't working.

9. The 4,323 calls tracked on this report represent 63.2% of this month's total sales. The other 36.8% are from walk-in retail sales, calls to our local number, and calls to 800 numbers that we aren't tracking this month.

10. We've subtracted calls to 800 numbers that we aren't tracking now to get 4,323. We have about 20 toll-free numbers that we assign to ads as we need them. At any point, 4 to 8 of our 800 numbers are not in use. Calls to those numbers would artificially reduce the total cost per call.

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