About The Millstream Hotel

The Millstream Hotel is a 35 bedroom hotel and restaurant located in the scenic village of Bosham, near Chichester. The hotel has a loyal following of regular customers, with whom have traditionally been communicated via printed mailings. Over the last couple of years Millstream had changed strategy and used e-marketing to get their message across. They decided that it would be worth re-visiting the direct mail approach.

The Challenge

Millstream recognised that it would be easier to get existing clients to return than to attract new guests who hadn't stayed before. Although they have over 16,000 names & addresses on their database, they wanted to restrict the mailing to people who had stayed here in the last three years in the winter and anytime in the past twelve months. Many of these would have stayed for the first time as a result of other marketing activities / booking channels and might be ripe for a very good value offer.

The Solution

We were advised by Amelia that the Royal Mail's Mailsort 3 was the best value at 22p per item as long as we sent a minimum of 4000 cards; anything less than this would have cost 40p per item in postage. The total cost of 4,100 full colour printed A5 cards with a gloss finish on the photo side and personalisation front & back was a little over £1,600 plus VAT.

It took less than three weeks from planning to printing and 24 hours from the time that the job was signed off for the cards to have been printed, trimmed and dispatched.

Business Impact

We took over 200 bookings (5% of the total mailing) in the first four weeks after the mail shot, which equates to over £55,000 worth of bookings; we expect this to rise to over £70,000 by the time the campaign has finished. In addition to this we expect to sell another £7,000 worth of extras (teas, coffees, light lunches, bar drinks, wine etc). Total revenue circa £77,000 - an excellent return on our investment of just £1,600!

" inertia> The Millstream Hotel: -Re-visiting Direct Mail - Pro-Active
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Case Study

The Millstream Hotel: Re-visiting Direct Mail

About The Millstream Hotel

The Millstream Hotel is a 35 bedroom hotel and restaurant located in the scenic village of Bosham, near Chichester. The hotel has a loyal following of regular customers, with whom have traditionally been communicated via printed mailings. Over the last couple of years Millstream had changed strategy and used e-marketing to get their message across. They decided that it would be worth re-visiting the direct mail approach.

The Challenge

Millstream recognised that it would be easier to get existing clients to return than to attract new guests who hadn't stayed before. Although they have over 16,000 names & addresses on their database, they wanted to restrict the mailing to people who had stayed here in the last three years in the winter and anytime in the past twelve months. Many of these would have stayed for the first time as a result of other marketing activities / booking channels and might be ripe for a very good value offer.

The Solution

We were advised by Amelia that the Royal Mail's Mailsort 3 was the best value at 22p per item as long as we sent a minimum of 4000 cards; anything less than this would have cost 40p per item in postage. The total cost of 4,100 full colour printed A5 cards with a gloss finish on the photo side and personalisation front & back was a little over £1,600 plus VAT.

It took less than three weeks from planning to printing and 24 hours from the time that the job was signed off for the cards to have been printed, trimmed and dispatched.

Business Impact

We took over 200 bookings (5% of the total mailing) in the first four weeks after the mail shot, which equates to over £55,000 worth of bookings; we expect this to rise to over £70,000 by the time the campaign has finished. In addition to this we expect to sell another £7,000 worth of extras (teas, coffees, light lunches, bar drinks, wine etc). Total revenue circa £77,000 - an excellent return on our investment of just £1,600!

Talk to us today and see how we can help with your marketing needs.

“I cannot speak highly enough of the friendly, yet totally professional way in which Amelia dealt with us throughout the process. Pro-Active were incredibly helpful with the design of our postcard and came up with many ideas including putting the name of the client on the front of the card as well as the back so that their message was very personal.”