First and Best, the publishers of e-books and copiable books and part of the Hamilton House Mailings group, has experimented extensively on solo vs shared. Here's a couple of results - although I am sorry to say it is not as straightforward as we might like.
A promotion consisting of a single sheet of A4 advertising two books at £25 each advertised to 5100 secondary schools. Leaving aside the printing cost which was the same in each case, the figures looked like this:
Solo cost £2142 (42p each)
Solo number of book sales 200 = £5000
Shared cost = £357 (7p each)
Shared number of book sales 50 = £1250
So what we have here is a cost difference in which shared only costs 17% of solo cost.
The response rate of a shared mailing is 25% of that of the solo mailing
On that basis the solo ought to be the best bet. But the profit is 2.5 times the investment on a shared, and only 1.3 times that on a solo - which suggests that the shared is the best bet.
What actually clarifies the situation is how the issue of how many times you can run either a shared or a solo. Obviously if you could run the shared four times and keep the same response rate the cost would be £1428, and the profit £3572. - which is a much better deal than you get from the solo. Shared wins again.
But - and this is the crunch, it doesn't work like that. Even with clever and well planned changes of the text and design to keep the advert fresh, the response rate of the shared falls off - as does the response rate of solo.
Thus on a scenario like this, even with the percentages pointing to shared being best, I would run with the solo and get the sales straight off.
But this is not to say solo is always best. When First and Best advertises five or six books on a single flyer, the response on a solo mailing is never enough to make a profit - but the same leaflet in a shared mailing certainly is profitable.
So the answer is... it is all down to what you are selling. I can't recall a shared mailing which has done as well at selling a product that sells at £100+ as a solo.
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