Direct Mail Marketing Back in Vogue

During the current recession it has become evident that promoting through traditional media has been less effective than ever before. To reach customers, many companies are now communicating through websites and blogs or directly via e-mail.

Many companies are accumulating names in order to reach their customers via newsletters; I see companies collect names at the register, through charge account lists or through direct inquiries in order to have an immediate contact with their customers.

We are in an era of multi-channel marketing. Recently, the U.S. Postal Service sent me a real wake-up call that is dynamite for the whole industry. It’s called “Results-Driven Marketing in a Down Economy.” Imagine: an organization once best known for the slow delivery of traditional (snail) mail aggressively involving itself in developing successful marketing campaigns.

To communicate these ideas the USPS has made available a brochure with a DVD that highlights how several leading companies use direct mail in addition to the Internet.

DM: cost-effective
Direct mail can be very targetable; companies can reach only the people they choose. It is likely that direct mail attracts attention, tells a good story and generates a positive response – perhaps even boosting market share in the current environment. Direct mail is also very cost-effective: every dollar spent for direct mail earned almost $12 in sales in 2007.

The DVD that accompanied the USPS brochure contains case studies for eight companies that have had excellent success with direct mail programs: AT&T, Dell, Bare Necessities, Feld Entertainment, CMO Council, Cumberland Pharmaceuticals, Wild Dunes Resort and Country Bank. Each one has an interesting slant on the effectiveness of direct mail.

Bare Necessities’ management talks about gaining recognition by switching from using only e-mail for 10 years to also using direct mail. The company has gotten an extraordinary response from its customers and has been able to reactivate some customers who had not purchased recently.

Dell Computers has intensified its use of direct mail and found it productive. It has changed its strategy and will mail as many as 200 million pieces this year. Similarly, Feld Entertainment (Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, Disney on Ice) knows what to expect from its direct-mail campaigns and can predict, based on initial responses, what attendance will be.

Extraordinary ROI
Wild Dunes Resort in North Carolina opened a new property in the current environment with mailings and sale offerings. Using direct mail, e-mail and outreach to travel agents, it achieved a 3,000 percent return on its investment: direct mail alone returned $29 for every $1 spent.

There has been a great deal of direct advertising for as long as I have been in retailing, but we are seeing professionals use the direct-mail route in a more disciplined, measurable way – whether that is the number of new customers or guests coming through the doors or the number of units that are sold in response to an ad.

These days, it is e-mail that fights for recognition on every computer while a direct mail campaign, if properly prepared, can stand out.