Showdown: Direct Mail Or Email Marketing?

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Direct mail is a traditional and often used marketing tool.

In direct mailer marketing, we often either send direct mails out to market a product or as a an after-sales 'thank you' letter

Now, most people are just wasting their time, by sending out a one page direct mailer to sell a product. Okay, you can say one paper is enough if it is used as a teaser to get the readers going on to the product's website.

Point taken.

But that is not fully maximizing the marketing effectiveness of a direct mailer.

If we really want to go on an direct mail marketing campaign that works, it has to contain the following components:

1. Carrier envelope with some teaser copy on it

2. Sales pitch letter that is emotional driven (most buyers buy on emotion, not logic)

3. A lift note (brief introductory note that be used as a personalizing tool)

4.Brochure (more colorful and glossy that is meant to contain more technical facts and features)

5. Order form (simple and easy to understand)

6. Reply envelope

There you go! That is quite a bloody handful isn't it?

Imagine if you have to send out to 1000 people, what will the cost be like?

Taking everything above into consideration, it is a substantial amount. You better jolly well have a strong marketing copy and product, if not, you might not even cover your marketing cost.

For that very reason, I prefer email marketing.

Wait!

Don't come jumping on me. I believe in the value of direct mailers. It has a higher perceived value than emails. And also, since it's physical, it has more of a personal touch.

But there are a lot of other advantages email marketing has over traditional direct mailers.

Here's why...

1. Emails are easier to craft and prepare

2. Emails are fast to send out. Almost instant. You send out now. In the next second, it is in your prospects/customers' inbox.

3. Emails has a worldwide reach. Not that direct mailers do not have. Just that you can send out to another corner of the globe - faster and easier .

4. Emails are cheaper. Way cheaper.

5. You can scale up your marketing campaigns - without proportionally increasing your expenses. Can you do that for direct mailers? You can't.

6. You can split test your email campaigns. Again, you can do that with direct mailers, but not as the speed and low cost you get with emails.

7. You can actually track your open rate (as well as click-through rate) with emails. You will know how many people actually open up your email to read.

And how many click the links in your email.

With direct mailers, you won't even know how many of your letters are ending up in the dustbin without even being read.

Or how interesting they find your letter. You don't have an indication.

With Emails, You CAN!

Not Convinced Yet? Here Are Some Statistics...

• eMarketer reports that in 2000, twice as many e-mails were sent than traditional pieces of mail.

• Jupiter Communications estimates that while paper-based campaigns receive only a 1 or 2% response rate on average. E-mail campaigns have a response rate of between 5 and 15%.

• Forrester Research found that campaigns sent using customer house lists achieve a 10% click-through rate. Of these click-throughs, 2% result in a purchase.

• A recent survey by eROI shows that more than 70% of b2b customers prefer to receive e-mails and newsletters on Monday or Tuesday.

• eMarketer reports that in 2000, twice as many e-mails were sent than traditional pieces of mail.

• Forrester Research predicts that US e-marketers will triple their e-mail marketing budgets by 2004

• A study by PriceWaterHouseCoopers found that more people go online for e-mail than to do research. Of those surveyed, 75% of executives ay that e-mail will be their primary source of business information by 2005

I rest my case.

Based on personal experience, emails campaigns have given me better results than direct mailers.

Maybe that is because I could do a lot more follow ups with emails.

Maybe that is because I only really did a direct mailing campaign once. And boy was it tedious AND expensive!

Or maybe it is because I'm just biased. =)

Let me know what YOU think.

Popularity: 10% [?]

I gotta agree that emails has more benefits but sending a greeting with traditional mails gives a warmer feeling

Hi Poster Maniac,

Yes I don’t dispute that traditional mailing does have his place.

I will prefer to do that for qualified leads rather than cold leads though. Then it’ll be more worth it.

Cheers,
Jag

Another huge pro for email marketing is that it saves a bunch of paper and, in turn trees. So it’s also a much greener alternative.

Hi Gorilla Trades,

Haha. That’s true. How you market can have an impact on the earth.

How come I never think about that? Hmmm…

=)

Cheers,
Jag

E-marketing works really well. cost effective.

Hi Paul,

For a moment, I was thinking “E-MoneyMarketing” (the name of my blog!).

Yes, major advantage of e-marketing is the cost effectiveness.

Combining both online and offline will be the best though!

Jag

this way is correct but not too attractive and not globally known.

yeah. emarketing really save alot of cost.but we need to focus on right target

Weight Loss Article:

Agreed. It’s up to us to form a relationship with our prospect though.

I’ve to say that mailers work better for prospects/customers that already have a relationship with us than those who don’t.

My Space codes:

e-marketing save cost, and offers a lot of scalability and leverage.

Combine that with offline marketing, you get an unbeatable combo.

Cheers,
Jag

Jag Foo
your point good. but we need to built good relationship

Hi James,

I know where you are coming from.

It is also possible to build good relationship through emailing.

The way we talk to them and how we personalize our message still applies as it is offline.

Jag

It is now one of the best way to impress the customers. Now a days we are becoming more dependent on the technology.
Keep working. I hope for the best!

Direct mail marketing is too outdated to be truly effective. Things work better in bulk these days,,

Hi Djahna,

I won’t say direct mail marketing is outdating. It has it’s advantages too.

If used all together, we will have a strong overall marketing strategy.

The key thing is not to just ONLY use direct mail.

Jag

There is one more advantage of email marketing - time between sales pitch and purchase.

People tend to veer away from purchase with increase in the time between sales pitch and the actual purchase. In email marketing, the purchase link is so very easy to click and proceed so it is more likely to result in a sale

- Andrew

Hi Andrew,

Yes, I missed that point. It is much easier for one to complete the purchase after reading an email, with a link readily available.

Sometimes I don’t understand why are people not using email marketing enough.

You certainly pointed out a very good point!

Cheers,
Jag