Poor, direct mail. Another year, another Google search proclaiming
the death of print marketing. The fact of the matter is those claims are less
trustworthy than the latest supermarket gossip rag, and here’s why:
1.)
According to the 2013 Direct Mail Association
Factbook, 65% of consumers, of all ages, made a purchase as a result of direct
mail. Those are promising statistics.
Now do you want to know what the average response rate for electronic mail was?
Ready for this? 0.12%. Direct mail came in at 4.4% for both B2B and B2C
mailings.
2.)
Direct mail yields the lowestcost per lead. That’s right. Lower than pay-per-click advertising, lower
than print advertising, and yes, even lower than email.
3.)
Socialmedia and web marketing are popular and certainly have their perks, but we
tend to overestimate their capabilities. Because social is a commonplace medium
today, we think everybody must use it, but that’s just not true. An estimated
55% of senior citizens do not rely on internet messaging, so if that’s an
audience you’re after, you need to reconsider your marketing priorities. We’re
not saying to abandon your web efforts, but combining them with print efforts
could reach a lot of potentialcustomers that you could be missing.
4.)
It’s creative.
For example, one gimmicky marketer reports that he has, in the past, attached a
cheap watch and asked consumers for a bit of their “time” or a mirrored mailer
asking how consumers “see” themselves. Cheesy? Maybe to some, but it is
creative and creative is what gets people interested.
5.)
39% of customers say that they decided to try a
business for the first time becauseof a direct mailer. It accounts for an average of 78% of non-profit
donations, and 44% of people will visit a company’s website after receiving
direct mail.
So next time you see a headline reading something like, “Is This the End for Direct
Mail?”, you can rest assured knowing what the answer will be. Talk to us about
how we can work together to ensure your marketing efforts are turning out the
best results for your business. We’ll get you setup the Tray way!
