[stomachmonkey]

Mass direct mailings are generally considered a success if you get a 3% or better response.

If you are offering a coupon you may see the response/redemption go to 5%.

Those are very basic numbers and can change in either direction based on the service needed and how effective your messaging is.

So now you need to start doing some math.

How many current customers do you have, what is your annual or quarterly gross so you can determine what an "average" customer contributes to bottom line.

Then the cost of the campaign, the reach, the expected response and now you can figure out your CPL, (cost per lead) and see if it makes sense.

Then you can look at other marketing vehicles, your local paper, yellow pages, pennysaver or local coupon books.

Use your average customer value to calculate CPL based on the publications subscription numbers.

Start comparing and see what your bang for buck is.

In my experience people like money, dollars off kind of stuff.

Even if you offer a 1st time Oil Change service that nets out to break even for you it's worth it as you are getting the opportunity to "win" a repeat customer.

We all know that customer service is king and that will do the most to garner loyal clients.