As digital marketers, I’ll admit we’re a bit biased when it comes to ditching direct mail. When everyone and their uncle is online today, the idea of continuing to use reams of paper just seems sort of silly, not to mention the fact that it’s about the least green practice a marketer can do (sorry trees). That said, I confess there are a few direct mail pieces I still appreciate receiving. The occasional coupon in the mail, or a unique catalog, but they are few and far between.
The reality is direct mail is not only a burnt out strategy, it’s also a costly approach to reach individuals who could be found online for a fraction of the price.
Thanks to an article by The WebShoppe.net we have a great illustration of price comparison breakdown of direct mail versus email marketing
Below are price comparisons of the advertising costs:
| 50,000 Direct Mailings/email Direct Messaging | ||
| Production (or artwork) | $1500 | $300 |
| Digital Proofing | $120 | $0 |
| Printing, Binding, Addressing | $26,000 | $0 |
| Mailing | $21,000 | $350 |
| Total | $48,620 | $650 |
In addition to the cost benefits, consider this:
Email is Speedy. Unlike a direct mail piece which averages a week just to prepare artwork, email marketing can be whipped up in just hours. Add to that the fact that a prospect gets the email instantly after you hit send, you can tailor your timing, unlike direct mail. The speed of email marketing allows you to capitalize on events, news, weather and other factors that may impact when your audiences wishes to buy.
Email allows you to test. Want to try out a new message and need quick results? Think email. Unlike direct marketing and its lengthy turnaround time, email marketing is a terrific way to test and get instantaneous answers. Whether is a comparison of two headlines or a different promo you wish to try out, email will allow you to test and get answers fast.
Instant added value in exchange for more information. Unlike direct mail, you can use email marketing to gather additional information from your audience. Say with a white paper that can only be downloaded after filling out a survey or a form. People will be more apt to fill it out knowing they’ll get something in return instantly. Also, you can provide instant benefits to your email reader when they click on an ad within your newsletter. Quick added value is something a print piece can’t provide.
It is clear the email offers more reasonable solution for businesses looking for an effective way to increase marketing efforts. It is really important for businesses to test out different email content to improve the quality of email campaigns.
Thanks for sharing these numbers. It will be a good reference point to share with clients here at Dydacomp.
Thanks for sharing!
Molly Griffin
Steve,
Your article takes the prize for the most one sided, opinionated, fact less article on direct mail versus email.
Where are your results Steve? Where did your production prices come from? Direct mail campaigns range from simple postcards to complex, 14-way match letter mailings. Are you aware there are standard postage rates available for a fraction of the cost of the postage you quoted? Have you ever heard or seen a PURL integrated into a direct mail campaign where results are tracked electronically just the same as e-mail? Were you aware those PURLS and landing pages can vary based on the individual and their demographics? Have you ever seen or heard of a QR code integrated into a direct mail campaign? Were you aware direct marketers can in fact test various offers, headlines, etc. within a direct mail campaign with quick validation of results? Have you heard of integrated, multi-channel marketing? Please provide a list of a dozen national companies that have ditched direct mail in favor of e-mail and provide us with their results. For every company you can name, I can name 10 who are more successful with an integrated direct marketing approach, rather than simply relying on one channel, whether direct mail or email.
Come on Steve, we all want to promote and grow our respective channels, at least educate yourself before making such outrageous, unproven statements regarding the effectiveness of email versus direct mail.
There’s no doubt that email marketing works. In addition to the traditional email marketing (mass email) one should look at another marketing opportunity and that is the emails we all send from our corporate email addresses every day. I represent a company that has developed a solution for just those emails and thus this post.
The basic idea behind wrapmail is to utilize the facts that all businesses have websites and employees that send emails every day. These emails can become complete marketing tools and help promote, brand, sell and cross-sell in addition to drive traffic to the website and conduct research. Wrapmail is available for free at http://www.wrapmail.com and wrapped emails arrive with no red x!
Steve,
Great to see the numbers. You’re right, as digital marketers we’re a little biased but the truth lies within the numbers. The bottom line is that it is way more efficient to execute an email marketing campaign. The trick is making the content valuable and relevant. The only way to achieving this is through analytics. Connecting email to social media is a connection that should also be considered.
@IsmaelAlterian
Community Manager | Alterian
http://email.alterian.com
There’s really nothing new in this analysis. Marketers have known since the early 90′s that email is more cost effective than direct mail. In your above example, if the DM campaign brought in $100k and the EM campaign brought in $50k than DM would be the better choice, no? You are implicitly assuming that the response/conversion side of the campaign is the same regardless of channel. That’s a pretty faulty assumption. Seems like you are only telling one side of the story.
Direct mail is not my favorite medium but for many oragnizations it still works. This is why after we’ve been hearing about it’s death for the last 20 years its still being used – for some businesses/industries it still works. As marketers shouldn’t we be trying to leverage all channels where appropriate and listen to what the consumer wants and communicate with them in that manner?
I agree with Shawn:
“Your article takes the prize for the most one sided, opinionated, fact less article on direct mail versus email.”
With QR Codes, direct mail has changed the game of direct mail. Get with the times – even if you are just copying someone’s article.
Additionally, it’s not a one or the other game. The best marketers know it takes an integrated approach.
It does seem a bit more complicated than the formula you’ve devised here, Steve. In the same Google alert results on “direct mail” that brought your article to my inbox, there was a link to an article titled “Postcard Printing Campaigns Result in Client Surge for Restaurant.” The bit.ly link for that is here: http://bit.ly/l1mBqH. Granted, Joy Gendusa has made a fortune off postcard marketing and she has something to gain in reporting this. But I have to agree with Sean and Chris that, in fact, direct mail marketers not only started and refined the testing/measuring era, all continue to benefit from mail’s solid place in the marketer’s campaign tool kit. The more salient point is probably at which stage do we use which channel because, truly, we need them all. Keep on mailing, snail and otherwise. :-)
I’m with Shawn S. on this one. This article is very one-sided and has a lot of holes. At least you started the article with an honest statement, “I’ll admit we’re a bit biased when it comes to ditching direct mail.” For many of our clients direct mail is the best way to initiate a targeted new customer. New customer acquisition using email is spam.
There are many new integrations with Direct Mail that allow marketers some very smart options to make the ROI stronger. Agreed, postage rates increasing will drive the popularity of direct mail down. I don’t understand why DM gets such a bad wrap. Broadcast media is measured by “reach,” email is measured by “opens,” print media is measured by “circulation.” Why is DM the only marketing medium measured by redemption?
Put a tracking device on all your advertising. There is not one “perfect fit” medium for companies…think outside the box and use multiple channels to make your message more relevant and powerful. Email has many positive qualities and should be used in the mix, but saying it should replace direct mail is absurd.
As a 30 year vet in direct marketing, which email is a part of, I simply think Steve is a young inexperienced marketer with no solid background in strategic marketing development. I’m sure I made brass statements when I was young that made other marketers cringe.
Or, Steve is very good at creating posts that stimulate conflict and compel people to make posts adding content to this site.
That aside, the fact is, direct mail works when used correctly. In some situations direct mail is the single best option to use.
Even Google uses direct mail to promote their pay per click advertising.
I use email, no doubt about it, but it’s growing weaker because of all the SPAM (I hope you’re not spamming people Steve) While direct mail is getting stronger again because there is less competition in the mail box.
Feel free to learn more about direct marketing and mail order selling at the National Mail Order Association, NMOA. Join our network at no cost: http://www.nmoamembers.org/network/
John,
Thank you for your post,I appreciate the level headed post. I agree with you and you bring up a good point, even Google uses Direct Mail for PPC advertising.
Usually I am just a reader, however, your comment put this topic in perspective to me and just wanted to say thanks.
:)
As an online marketer, seeing this kind of thing get published significantly takes away our credibility and shows a true lack of knowledge of how marketing works. Levels of engagement and effectiveness are the far more important metrics than cost. As much as I like to take advantage of Internet marketing, it’s tough to be carefully crafted mailing pieces.
Sorry to revive this, but there is something that is definitely missing here – And it should be obvious to any marketing professional. Most marketing campaigns are based on the cost per response. The response rate for direct mail is 1-3% and the response rate for email efforts is .01% (or even less) for non-opt in lists (which is what most of us would be using for a mailing of this size). The response rate for direct mail is 100 times higher. Therefore, the numbers above actually show it is about 50% more expensive per response to market via email vs direct mail. It pretty much proves that direct mail is the more cost effective option. FYI: No comparison of marketing costs is accurate unless it shows the costs per response.