Once You Have a Successful Test, Here's How to Roll Out

Direct mail starts out using a number of different tests, followed up by massive rollouts. When you find a product and sales letter combo that converts well, your next step is to milk it for all it's worth.

Successful campaigns don't last forever. Knock-offs will come on the market, customers will change, even lists and magazines can change. When you have a home run, your job is to run with it as fast as you can.

How do you roll out once you have a successful test?

==> Mail as Far Back as It's Profitable

When you first mail a list, you'll usually only mail the recent names and recent buyers. Once you've proven profitability with recent buyers, try also mailing lists from further back.

Mail the 1-month, 3-month and 6-month names progressively and see if you're profitable. If so, you can even try mailing the 12-month names.

==> Test Similar Lists

If you're mailing to Entrepreneur Magazine's list for example, you might want to try mailing to another business-oriented list. If Maxim Magazine is converting for you, you might also want to try Playboy.

Just because a demographic is similar doesn't necessarily mean you'll succeed in mailing the list. However, if you have a profitable sales letter on your hands, it'd be criminal not to try it on every conceivable list that it could be profitable on.

==> Do a Print Ad

If your list came from a magazine, go for a print ad. If you're profitable via direct mail, you can almost guarantee a profitable print ad in that magazine.

Generally you should start with a full page ad or even a two-page spread. Your conversions will be highest in the beginning, then gradually shrink as people get used to your ad.

As your conversions shrink, shrink the size of your ad to increase ROI. Go from two pages to one, then to a half page and even quarter page ad.

==> Roll Out to Other Media

A home run shouldn't be kept just on direct mail and magazines. It should be blasted across every medium possible.

Go for infomercial TV ads. Go for direct response radio ads with tracked telephone numbers. Use the internet and tools like Google AdWords to generate traffic.

Roll out your product using the same sales message across other kinds of media. This can drastically increase your reach.

==> Prep the Ground Work

There are three things you need to prep before a huge rollout: fulfillment, call center and merchant accounts.

Your fulfillment center needs to stock up on products and get ready to ship a lot of product quickly. Do not surprise your fulfillment center with huge orders, as that'll quickly cause problems.

The same applies to merchant accounts. If your account has only been doing $5,000 a month and all of a sudden jumps to $500,000 a month, you can bet you'll get shut down. Talk to your merchant account before running huge volume spikes.

Finally, make sure you have the systems in place to handle the volume of calls that'll come in from a successful product rollout.