Imagine a form of advertising that can potentialy reach every household within the United States. It averages a $7.20 return for each and every dollar spent. It currently represents 12% of all advertising expenditures, that’s over $45 billion dollars in spending a year. It has been shown to increase the value of a customer by 10% if your business is just a website, and by 188% if your business is brick & mortar. If all three are used, the complete synergy has been shown to increase customer value by a total of 465% vs. just a brick & mortar location.
And yet, despite of all of this, “experts” are claiming that you should ignore it completely as a sales channel.
What are they thinking?
Direct Mail has been shown to be one of the most highly effective forms of advertising availiable. Yes, email gives a higher ROI; that’s because it’s so cheap. A well crafted direct mail piece out pulls a well crafted email by anywhere from 2-4x. If you’re mailing everybody, sure go with an email. If you know what kind of customers you want, or who you want as a customer, then you can’t beat a targeted direct mail piece. Sure, it will cost you a little more; but you will get more of the high quality customers that you are aiming for. Also realize, 25% of the households in this country don’t even have internet access, but they still spend money. These households tend to be in the 35+ demographic and are heavily concentrated in the baby boomers. How much of the GDP do they control again?
Still don’t believe me? When was the last time you received a piece of mail with your name on it speaking directly to your businesses needs? When did you last read a handwritten letter? Direct mail is easier to target than paid search ads. Direct mail is also trusted more than email, and harder to destroy.
Hopefully I’ve convinced you to reconsider including direct mail in your marketing mix, if not I wish you best of luck in your marketing endevors. (I’ll just be over here mailing those customers that you missed.)