Any direct marketing project has costs. Most of the time these costs are measured as what you spend on outside vendors. Such as what you pay for printing and postage. But what about the total cost of ownership?
The total cost of ownership is all the costs that go into a project including:
- Internal staff time dedicated to the project
- Internal database needs
- Graphic design
- Information technology needs
- Inventory and fulfillment costs
- Printing
- Outside programming
- Mailing preparation
- Postage fees
As you can see the total cost of ownership really can add up to a much higher number than what you pay your outside vendors.
So...given how much goes into any marketing project you have to ask yourself these critical questions for each project:
1. What are your goals for the campaign?
2. How will you measure the success of the campaign?
3. What data do you actually have to meet your campaign goals?
4. What can you do to lower the total cost of ownership?
If your vendors aren't talking about this then consider looking to other sources. It should be the goal of every single vendor in any economy to provide a lower total cost of ownership.
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