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Reasons Why Direct Mail is Not Dead

Everyone Likes Getting Post

Business professionals suffer from inbox overload – and with just under 300 billion messages sent each day it’s hardly surprising. Perhaps in reaction to the plethora of emails arriving every day, a study conducted by the The Direct Marketing Association DMA) in April 2012 found that the response rate for Direct Mail to an existing customer averages 3.4%, compared to 0.12% for email*. Add to this the fact that receiving something interesting in the post is a bit of a novelty nowadays, and that the cost of printing smaller quantities of personalised mailers has fallen dramatically, and it seems like DM should definitely be back in contention for a slice of your marketing budget.

DM + Online Interaction = True Love

The DMA also says that print DM is a good way to drive digital interaction and that the move to digital marketing has actually driven more innovation in print DM, rather than killing it off. Being creative in your DM design helps to drive better results too and using ‘dimensional mail’ rather than traditional flat paper in envelopes has been shown to get significantly higher response rates in the B2B world.

Top 5 Reasons

• Direct Mail is highly targeted & speaks to recipients on a personal level.
• Multiple formats make Direct Mail Campaigns versatile.
• The results of Direct Mail can be measured without complicated analytics.
• Creating and executing a Direct Mail Campaign is simple, easy, fun and cost effective.
• Direct Mail can be integrated with a number of different marketing mediums.

Making The Most of Direct Mail

So now that print DM is officially back on trend, how can you create mailers that will get the response you want?
Focused Targeting – Don’t mass send to everyone in your database. Be selective, develop the right messages and send only to the right people. Remember – this will only be successful if you’ve got good, up-to-date data lists.

Get Personal – Use of first name just doesn’t cut it anymore. You have to speak to the business pain your prospects are feeling or your mailer just won’t resonate, no matter how pretty it is!

Don’t Go It Alone – Like all marketing channel, integration is the key and your amazing Direct Mail Campaign needs to be surrounded by other marketing activities for maximum impact.

Return on Investment
Direct Mail activity delivered the strongest return with an ROI of £4.60. Its performance has proven considerably stronger than clients search and above the line activity.
DIRECT MAIL…………………………………£4.60
AFFILIATES…………………………………….£2.17
SEARCH………………………………………….£2.00
AGGREGATORS……………………………….£1.90
RADIO…………………………………………….£1.51
PRESS…………………………………………….£1.30
ONLINE………………………………………….£1.18
TV…………………………………………………..£1.00
OUTDOOR………………………………………£0.82

How To ‘Nail’ Direct Mail

• Make an integrated plan that surrounds your DM with digital activities, so the mailer also creates a buzz online!
• Remember that, although the costs of a DM campaign may seem high compared to digital, if you get it right the potential ROI is a lot higher too!
• Create a dimensional DM that has impact & go for small, targeted groups rather than blanket mails for better results!

Sources:
http://www.b2bmarketing.net/blog/posts/2013/09/10/direct-mail-its-not-dead

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barbara-morris/back-to-the-basics-why-di_b_3659032.html

http://blog.marketscan.co.uk/blog/bid/270760/Direct-Mail-Has-Risen-from-the-Dead