Is Direct Mail Really Dead?
Absolutely NOT! While Internet Marketing is a great way to attract prospects and customers to your business, direct mail certainly is not dead. In fact, if it were, you would not receive a lot of the mail that you currently do. The fact that we receive what many consider to be “junk” mail is evidence that people are spending money on direct mail. And if it wasn’t working, they would not be doing it. According to a DMNews article dated August 2009, direct mail spending was actually up 2.9% at $35 Billion in 2008.
So why do people bad mouth direct mail? Most likely it’s because they have not implemented it correctly and they lost money. Or it could be the fact that they did not know how to track the business that came from it, so they did not realize how profitable it was.
Let’s talk first about how to correctly implement a direct mail campaign. Please know that sending a single direct mail piece is usually not effective, and more so if you are an unknown brand. If a major brand sends out a single piece, they would get a decent response by the sheer fact that they have brand recognition, but you probably notice that even the big players in direct mail, send campaigns. A campaign implies that there will be more than one mailing as it should be. You need to plan to reach a specific target market and do so with consistency. Studies show that between the third and fourth consistent exposure to your company, the response rate will start to dramatically improve. This means that if you have ever sent out a single direct or two-time mail piece you have cut your chances short.
So, is sending multiple direct mail pieces a sure fire guarantee of success? Probably not. Marketing is all about testing and tracking, so you will want to test different direct mail pieces, to see which one gets a better response. Always make sure your phone number and website are prominent, and it is ideal to have a response mechanism or unique URL set up to effectively measure your responses.
Need a pro to help you put it all together? Contact the small business marketing experts at PRstore today and we will help put you on track to direct mail success! Call us today at 602-595-4377.