Direct Mail v Email

Did you know there was a time before emails?

Amazing eh? But it’s true! Before technological advancements and the development of email, companies would market their business and products via letters and the post. However an increase in postage costs and the email revelation resulted in a lot of businesses moving to the dark side and it was a case of out with the old in with the new.

Nowadays email is part and parcel of our everyday working life. Information can be sent to thousands of potential customers at the click of a button.  Which is a lot quicker than the postman carting his bag around all day posting letters one by one with the potential of those letters falling victim to your customer’s Jack Russell!

But is email the right direction to go in?

If you already have a loyal bunch of clients then obviously yes! Clients who you communicate with on a regular basis are most likely to open your emails!

But in today’s day and age we all know how important it is to acquire new business and explore new avenues. It’s vital you don’t stand still.

The Direct Marketing Association run annual surveys regarding email open rates on acquisition eshots. The latest survey found an industry average of 11.5% open rate and 2% click through.

With more and more companies bombarding customers with emails and spam filters becoming more intelligent it’s vital you have high-quality targeted data and a creative marketing team. Without them your email stands little chance of being opened and consumed by customers.

Then there’s another problem, there’s not as much email data available compared to postal data. Currently it’s estimated there is just 20% of legitimate email addresses compared to postal addresses. Therefore you could be missing out on a staggering 80% of your target market, which is a massive amount.

Taking that into consideration, resorting back to the traditional method of a direct mail campaign could be quite effective. A larger target audience could be targeted, more information could be added to your CRM database and there will be less competition from your rivals, as they’ll still be bombarding potential customers with email after email!

So what are you waiting for? Go get your stamps and get posting!