Marketing is a numbers game. Much of the marketing strategy’s effectiveness is ultimately based on how many from your target audience you have turned into customers or leads. There are other factors to consider, but sales is pretty much the be-all-end-all metric of marketing. Simply put, the higher the sales figures, the better the strategy.Among the different marketing channels used for hiking up profit, direct mail marketing is as effective as they come. While people generally dismiss paid marketing by going for cost-efficient strategies (online marketing and social media spring to mind), they prohibit themselves the opportunity of making the most out of their time and effort to pull off a marketing campaign that guarantees results. This is why people should consider investing money on running a direct mail marketing campaign for their business.
If you need proof as to how profitable direct mail marketing can make you, below are glaring statistics you can’t overlook about direct mail.
- More than half buys from direct mail. The 2012 Channel Preference Survey from ExactTarget has yielded impressive results for this tried and true marketing approach. According to the e-book, 65% of people who receive direct mail have made a purchase or engages in a different marketing channel as instigated by the sender, placing in at second behind e-mail (66%).
- Greater emotional processing is involved with physical than virtual media. Although there are no conclusive figures to quantify the claim, the case study conducted by Millward Brown just shows the intangibles that physical media such as direct mail present compared to its online counterparts. According to the study, physical media “leaves a deeper footprint in the brain” and produces “more brain responses connected with internal feelings, suggesting greater “internalization” of the ads.”
- Catalogs are one of the most cost-effective marketing tools. This came from the Direct Marketing Association Statistical Fact Book 2011 as reported by Deliver Magazine. When measuring different promotional materials based on their cost per order, you need to purchase $47.61US worth of catalogs to land an order. This is more affordable compared to paid search ($99.47US) and e-mail ($53.85US).
- More people need to be educated about direct mail. Pitney Bowes have released an e-book entitled 2012 Small Business Marketing Survey. Regarding direct mail, only 20% of businesses running mail campaigns track metrics to gauge the performance of their mailers. Suffice to say, 80% of businesses need to learn cost per lead, response rates, and conversion rates, among others to have a better understanding on how they can benefit from direct mail.
For help regarding the latter, you can download PrintRunner’s FREE e-book entitled “Direct Mail Marketing Basics.” Aside from explaining the different tracking tools and metrics to make sense out of the data you collected from your campaign, the e-book also discusses how to properly plan for your direct mail. Click here to download the e-book.