Including all direct mailing costs -- creative time, printing, mailshop costs and postage -- it costs about $500 to mail out 1,000 envelopes, or about $330 to mail out 1,000 postcards (less printing and mailshop costs). Can you afford to mail to 1,000 prospects?
It depends. Let's assume that the 1,000 prospect names are good names with a high probability of needing your services. Let's also assume that your sellling message is powerful enough to get someone to respond positively. You now need to generate at least $330 to $500 in profit to cover your costs. Assuming an average 50% profit margin, you'll need $660 to $1,000 in sales to break even. If your average sale is $100, then you'll need 7-10 sales, or about a 1% response to break even. Using the same thought, if your product sells for $50, you'll need 14-20 sales, or a 1.4% to 2% response. But if your aveage profit per sale is only $10 each, you'll need 66 to 100 orders to break even. Good luck. It's always a good idea to figure out what type of response rate you'll need for a mailing to be profitable. Keep in mind that you're also hoping to build repeat sales, so a low initial response rate may not concern you if you expect to make lots of profit on future sales.