January 01, 2004
Blog Entry

Wisdom - Real-life 10

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This success story deals with two staples of the marketing world — free offers and direct mail. Our organization, the local transit authority in Cincinnati, OH, sent out 800,000 pieces to zip codes along targeted bus routes as part of a summer Clean Air ridership promotion designed to entice people to ride the bus, instead of driving, to reduce smog in our region. The mailing consisted of an oversized postcard that featured some facts about the bus and a free ride coupon. We only included one coupon for a reason: since most transit customers ride two ways, we were ensuring increased revenue from trial riders who used their coupons for one portion of their trips. None of us believed it when the coupons were counted at the end of the three-month promotion and the total redeemed — more than 42,000 — it was closer to a 5% response rate, which translated to about a 3% ridership increase when compared to budget. The secret we learned was no secret at all: direct mail done right with a meaningful offer gets results every time!

Dave Etienne, Supervisor of Communications, Metro Transit Authority, www.sorta.com


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