Direct mail to teachers, students, parents and lecturers is available in the following options:

• Solo mailing in which you mail your material on its own, as and when you wish.  In a solo mailing you can ask Hamilton House to undertake the whole process (supply lists, labels, envelopes etc) or simply buy some of the elements from Hamilton House.    There are more details on www.directmail.org.uk      Generally speaking you might expect to pay around 40p per school - a price that will include postage, packing, envelopes and labels.  Or if you prefer, you can call our sales team to talk details through: 01536 399 000.
• Shared mail in which you mail in a pack with other organisations.   The cost is much lower than in a solo mailing but the response rate will often be lower too.  Generally the price is between 5p and 9p per school - slightly more for heavier items.   Shared mailings usually come with discounts for regular use of the system.  There is more information on www.shared.org.uk 
• Mailing lists - you can buy mailing lists through the Hamilton House office, or on line via www.hamilton-house.com    Buying on line generates the lists directly into your computer within a minute or two of you typing in the details of what you require.  Additionally the prices charged on line are lower than those charged where you use the services of your sales team.

Information on direct mail

Hamilton House offers the definitive range of reports on the theory and practice of direct marketing, including the most read direct mail news groups in Europe.

Key articles: articles of particular importance or insight which can be downloaded directly into your computer for a small fee.

The MIE: a collection of specialist web sites which contain information on most direct mail topics.

Newsgroups: where you can receive daily updates of news on specific direct mail topics, and ask around 1000 other direct mailers for help and advice.

Database work re direct mail

Hamilton House has devised a process of database work which consists of building up two databases - one of people who really like what you sell and who are already buying or at least enquiring about your products while the other is of people who ought to be buying from you, but for whatever reason are not.  They might not appreciate the benefits of what you sell in general, they might be prejudiced against you, or they might be buying from the opposition.

Then you have to convert those people who are not buying from you, into buyers, for the least amount of money possible. 

But that is not all.  Our approach is also about using these databases to find out exactly what your buyers have in common.   Now you might think you know the answer to that - your buyers are, for example, teachers in primary schools.

Such a definition is fine - but the techniques explored here allow you to refine these definitions further, offering you the chance to see that your buyers are not just (for example) primary school teachers, but particularly primary school teachers in larger schools in certain parts of the country.

"Ah I see," you may say (or words to that effect), "but I've looked at this, and we sell to  everyone in our sector. You can't separate it any further - everyone is a potential customer."   That, you may be interested to know, is one of the most common answers we get to this point.

But consider this.  Let us stay with the idea of selling to primary schools.  You've been doing it for years and you know that during the course of a week you can sell to a rural school of 86 children and three teachers in Devon, and a school with 450 children in central Cardiff.  Yes, you sell to everyone.

Except that this analysis doesn't tell you how much profit you make from each of these people - nor indeed how much it costs to market to them.   An analysis of the type we are going to push towards here can end up looking like this:

60% of the schools to which you mail your promotional material are businesses with under 5 staff.   And 55% of your orders come from such businesses.  Which makes it look as if your direct mail technique is fairly sound.   

But looked at another way the answer might not be so straightforward.

60% of the addresses to which you mail your promotional material are schools with under 100 pupils, but their orders are generally so small that only 5% of your annual profit comes  from those schools.   Which means you could cut your mailing by 60% and yet only lose 5% of your profit.   True your turnover would go down - but your profit would actually go up because you would have cut your mailing costs by 60%.

Now that may or may not be an attractive idea - and indeed it may be an idea you need to look into a little more... perhaps considering only mailing that 60% once a year rather than four times a year at present - but whatever the outcome it is an issue you need to consider.

So that is where we get to - a way of establishing who your customers are, and of mailing to them as often as is beneficial to you.