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Direct Mail: Is It Still a Viable Tactic?
Yes, direct mail (DM) is a marketing technique that resurfaced in past years to address unfilled marketing needs.
What is Direct Mail?
Direct mailing is the act of sending physical messages by snail mail and addressing it to a specific recipient in the hopes of making them aware of your solution and converting them into paying clients. It is considered a traditional marketing tactic and used to be very popular in the ‘60’s until the ‘90’s.
Why Did Direct Mail Marketing Lose Popularity?
- Long Process of Preparations – the preparation of DM campaigns takes dramatically more time than digital campaigns.
- High Cost of Execution – as a DM campaign involves sophisticated list building, printing, and postal distribution, the execution cost may be high.
- More Rigid Than Other Campaigns – unlike digital campaigns, a direct mail marketing campaign cannot be changed once it is launched. The marketer’s level of control is therefore limited to the preparation phase.
- Declining Response Rates – as the use of DM campaigns became commonplace, naturally the effectiveness and response rates decreased and other marketing tactics took their place.
What Revived the Use of Direct Mailing?
- Anti-SPAM Legislations and Privacy Laws – as governments introduced strict Anti-Spam laws (i.e., CASL-Canadian Anti Spam Legislation, US’s CAN-SPAM Act, GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation), the use of electronic communication became subject to consent and protection. As DM campaigns are not bundled under the same umbrella, it provided a new opportunity to use them for lead generation.
- Printing technology has evolved – with advances in digital printing, the costs of printing have significantly decreased; and, thus, DM campaign costs have become more reasonable.Â
- Uncommon Marketing Tactic – unlike the online marketing arena, which is oversaturated, DM techniques are seldom used nowadays in the B2B arena, thus potential clients pay more attention to the messages that arrive in their physical mailbox than they do to emails from unknown senders.
- Account-Based Marketing – the DM technique allows for incredibly spectacular and effective ABM campaigns.
What Are the Success Factors of a Direct Mailer?
Frequently updated and targeted list
Creative and well-thought strategy
Trackability with reference to client journey
Integration with other marketing tactics
The evidence of the success of DM is piling up, as indicated in this DMA survey. Here you can see DM campaigns yield higher ROI than paid search and online display campaigns, falling only 1% behind social media campaigns!
Direct Objective has extensive experience with conceiving, developing, and executing direct mail campaigns. Our database is constantly up-to-date, reviewed, and regulated to reflect the most current information and we can assist you every step of the way.
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Do you have questions about Direct Mail Marketing? Are you considering doing a Direct Mail campaign?
 Contact us today at Direct Objective to get answers to your questions and guidance for your campaign!
Testimonials
“Gil and his team at Direct Objective are consummate professionals who always have an eye on results. We retained their services to handle direct marketing in Quebec. Pleased with the results, we made the decision to expand their and pilot a direct marketing program in English Canada and the United States. Gil and his team did an excellent job of coordinating and implementing an integrated marketing campaign on very short notice and the results have been impressive. I would certainly recommend Gil to any organization looking for direct marketing vendor support.”
Patti Jordan, Former Communications and Marketing Manager, The Canadian Payroll Association