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The Brave NEW World of Direct Mail
If you look at the history of social media, you’ll see that by 2007, when Facebook began to outperform MySpace, some marketing gurus and media mavens were predicting the demise of direct mail as a viable channel for direct marketing. In today’s difficult economy, theprice, they opined, could not be justified when compared to the low cost and broad reach of viral media. Yet direct mail has not gone away, and an increasing chorus of voices are singing the praises of direct mail to do what it’s always done so well: target key consumers and achieve the sales levels that other media cannot.
One of the most interesting studies of direct mail preference comes from none other than Epsilon, the world’s largest permission-based email marketing company, which sends more than 40 billion emails annually on behalf of its global client base. In it’s 2011 Channel Preference Study, released on December 1, 2011, Epsilon Targeting reports that “through economic turmoil, technology advances and channel proliferation, direct mail continues to deliver as consumers’ preferred means of receiving marketing messages from brands.”
The report goes on to say that “despite direct mail’s reputation for being ‘old school’ or expensive, it is the top choice of U.S. and Canadian consumers for the receipt of brand communications in almost every category, ranging from health to household products, to household services, insurance and financial services, including credit card offers. The preference for direct mail also extends to the 18-34 year old demographic.”
A post by the Kern Organization further supports the notion that younger consumers are attracted to direct mail and why: “According to Experian, despite common preconceptions, 15-24 year olds are highly receptive to direct mail. Younger demographics respond to direct mail so well, because it’s new. You know: ‘Hey I want to feel important!
When grandma sends me a birthday card, I can’t wait to open the envelope. It’s my birthday and I open it and it says Happy Birthday—everybody loves that!’ Well if someone says ‘Hey congratulations, you’ve qualified for a credit card!’ and you’re 21 years old and you’ve never been qualified for a credit card before, its new, its novel, and exciting. So the youth still has the opportunity to be impressed by the new and the freshness of what happens in their life. Those solicitations that come in the mail, that help them see that they’re moving on their path—a credit card, auto club membership, special promotions, sale announcements, appeal to their personal interests and the freshness of messaging that says ‘Hey I’m important.’
So is direct mail THE way to attract a demographic such as high school seniors? One thing that hasn’t changed in a digital universe is the opinion of successful studio owners who stress the importance of relying on the proverbial “marketing mix,” the many advertising channels that are open to photographers in pursuit of clients: Their best advice is to employ multiple channels working together to produce the best results, and that each part of the mix must be appropriate for the target market.
It’s comforting to know that direct mail, which gives you the option of structuring your marketing message in a truly compelling fashion, and delivering it directly to your targeted consumer, is still alive and well. Furthermore, when social media comes together with direct mail, it’s a match made in marketing mix heaven!
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Originally posted February 23, 2012.
Ditto with Johns comments, direct mail done correctly will give you a better ROI than any other media. Direct mail is the MOST important ingredient mixed in with the social network such as Facebook, blog, email and telephone/text messaging helps get your message out as well with min cost.
Originally posted February 22, 2012.
Direct mail is emphatically NOT dead! What IS dead is direct mail done poorly. Photographers who complain that direct mail doesn’t work have themselves to blame much more than any perceived shifting market.
In my consulting I routinely see poorly constructed direct mail designs, layouts and content that do not address client needs and wants. There is little or no innovation in the imagery shown, client questions and objections are not being answered, there is no clear call to action, no guarantees, no testimonials, no consistent branding. And almost without exception these pieces are mailed with insufficient frequency and poorly timed, to boot. This combined with all the above virtually assures a poor response.
Because direct mail is much more expensive than it used to be, both to produce and to deliver, the only way to make it cost-efficient is to make it effective in the marketplace. In other words, a high response rate is far more important than bottom-line cost. Marketing that doesn’t work is very expensive, even if it costs little or nothing.
Additionally, photographers who have abandoned direct mail in favor of social media marketing have created a huge opportunity for those of us who know what it takes to make direct mail work well. Those who have retreated to social media marketing only have found it difficult to distinguish themselves in a large crowd of ‘me too’ photographers all vying for an increasingly fickle market.
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an increasing chorus of voices are singing the praises of direct mail to do what it’s always done so well: target key consumers and achieve the sales levels that other media cannot.
Let me be the first to welcome you to the brave new branding world, where integrated marketing – in the way we’ve known and practiced it until now – no longer earns you a gold star. Because soon integrated marketing won’t be a choice. It will be a basic condition of operation.