Counting On Direct Mail

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We recently had the biggest single quarter in several years. Clients we haven’t heard from in literally years called us to plan their annual direct mail budgets for the rest of this year. It’s no surprise to anyone in business that profits had practically disappeared years ago and continued to sputter along since then. My advice at the time was that businesses who maintained a modest media presence during the downturn in the economy would come out of the recession with a bigger market share than those who did not. From a direct marketing standpoint, I know which of our clients heeded our advice and which did not. I also know the results. As was predicted, our clients who kept a modest direct mail presence were able to jump in with both feet. Regardless of the choices you made, it is not too late to benefit from the power of direct mail. In fact, the second half of the year is predicted to break all records in the direct marketing industry. There are a multitude of studies with facts and figures touting the response rate of direct mail. For example, according to Direct Mail News, the average response rate for direct mail was 4.4% for both business-to-business and business-to-consumer mailings—considerably higher than industry expectations, and surging past electronic mail’s response rate of just 0.12%. If you want more tangible evidence, look no further than your own mailbox. For the first time in years, it is once again filled with postcards, circulars, and personalized letters. Furniture stores are doing it. Mortgage company and credit card companies are doing it.  Even craft stores like JoAnn’s, A.C. Moore, and Michael’s are doing it. Bed Bath & Beyond never stopped doing it. So, there is overwhelming data that shows that direct mail is still the fastest growing and most cost-effective media option. It was true in then, and it is even more true now. This does not mean that you should stop paying attention to electronic media. 80% of consumers begin their search online. If you aren’t there, you will lose out on a tremendous amount of business. Never think because your customers won’t buy from your website, that it’s not important to be there. Long before customers open your door to spend their money, they have made an assessment of who you are by the way you present yourself on the web.

What role does direct mail have in your media mix?

In the last several years, businesses have experimented with internet based advertising. The results have been in for some time now. While you get a lot more impressions for the money, in the end, it still does not out perform direct mail. Our goal is to connect you with qualified consumers who want to buy what you have to sell. With direct mail, you can target your exact client profile geographically, demographically, and even psychographically. In addition, it allows you to target your existing customers from which 80% of your sales happen.

Here are some of the key advantages of direct mail:

  • In advertising, you only have about a half a second to grab someone’s attention. Nothing does this better than direct mail postcards.
  • Ask yourself, what is the first thing you do when you get home? If your like the majority of consumers, it is to go through your mail. With direct mail, you actually hold it in your hand instead of clicking it away, deleting it, or not paying attention to it at all.
  • A significant number of direct mail postcards are kept by recipients for between ten and thirty days.
  • Direct mail is the best, and most cost-effective way to drive traffic to your website. Then, you can capture your customers’ email addresses. Once you have a working list, you can augment direct mail with weekly targeted email campaigns.
Please contact me to discuss your marketing plans.

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