Commercial Printing & Mailing Services
Which is safest and most effective – email or Direct Mail?
First, study yourself. What is the form of advertising that will most likely entice you to respond?
Do you respond to: Direct Mail? Email? Web browsing? TV Ads? Radio Ads?
Radio – With all the distraction of trying to survive driving without an accident or ticket, the radio is mostly background noise to which I pay little attention. Much less make any real effort to remember what I just heard. What was the very last ad you heard on the radio? Bet you don’t remember!
TV Ads – I can’t even tell you the last time I even wrote something down from a TV ad, much less responded to one. If a company has an interesting “jingle” and I hear it a WHOLE lot, I might remember to call that company should I have need of a product / service they offer. Talk about a long shot!!
Let’s look at email.
Lots of companies use email advertising. After all, to the advertising department, it’s an almost “free” medium!! And who doesn’t like FREE??!!
But is it the best way to get customers to your business?
First, consider the danger.
Danger from advertising??
Ever clicked on a link in an email and immediately knew you'd have pain?
Email and Web Advertising are the only forms of advertising I know in which you can get a whole lot more than you bargained for in the form of a crippled computer or device. I've spent more hours than I can count helping family and friends get their computers running again after encountering malware.
That one fact of life should ALWAYS make you very cautious about email and the web. Even legitimate sites can harbor malware that can take your device down.
For me, this kind of damage is the biggest drawback to email and web advertising.
Consider all the "goodwill" that will fly out the window if it's figured out your electronic communication is the reason customer's devices are now held hostage! That "black eye" will take a while to heal. Do you have the pockets to afford the potential liability?
If the big guys have trouble, and they make the news frequently with just such issues, don't think it can't happen to your organization. And I've seen it happen many times coming from a single individual's device.
Sometimes "FREE" can be awfully expensive!!
Then consider your daily email ritual.
I don’t know about you, but first thing in the morning, my inbox is slammed full. That’s in spite of messaging rules, spam filters and so-forth. I even use email aliases to further thwart spam.
Even so, I have a lot of email to deal with first thing. And I’ll bet you do, too.
The delete key becomes my good friend. Superfluous (ie: advertising) emails become history real fast so I can get down to actual business. It’s difficult to earn a living if you don’t accomplish some work!
Many good email offers go to digital nirvana because of the mass of other emails competing for my time and attention.
“Overwhelmed” is a common complaint to the daily onslaught of emails.
For me, there is one thing that I absolutely won’t tolerate: A business that sends me multiple “sale” emails each week!
That kind of email advertising is like the proverbial boy that cried wolf, except this time they cry “Sale”!
“Sale, sale, sale!”, they exclaim, when in effect it isn’t any more spectacular than their competitors. In the process they annoy, alienate and waste the time of a potential customer while bellowing around a fictitious sale.
This type of email advertising actively destroys goodwill, in my opinion. It turns me into a viral non-customer that will complain of the “fake” advertising to my friends. “Don’t sign up with them unless you want your inbox attacked!”
It will also prompt me to create a “special” message rule just for that company that will instantly delete all their emails, not just the sale emails.
Hasta la vista, baby!
How many email addresses does a person have?
Over time, I have accumulated 20+ email addresses. This includes all my old addresses and the aliases I use to deal with spam.
What are the chances you’ll use the email address I actually look at frequently?
Emails sent to my "old" & "alias" addresses I can trash without even looking in the folder. I never use them for important correspondence.
By contrast, how likely is a person to have multiple physical addresses?
Then consider this: With an email, what means do you have to entice someone to open it?
Pretty much all you have is a subject line. Miss on that and your email is definitely toast.
That helps to explain why the average productive response rate to email advertising is 0.6%.
To contrast, how much Direct Mail do you have to deal with every day?
I bet it’s a whole lot less than the number of emails you receive. And you can deal with Direct Mail whenever you’re in the mood.
Direct Mail is ONLY uncluttered and premium channel that goes directly into your customer's hands.
This is especially true since most everyone else has jumped on the "Free" email advertising bandwagon.
Consider the many unique features Direct Mail offers:
#1 – There is no comparison to Direct Mail vs email or web advertising in regards to safety. No one ever had damage to an electronic device from a printed piece. It does NOT invade and take over a person's device.
#2 – Direct Mail can be viewed whenever it’s convenient and doesn’t get lost in the onslaught of a continuous stream of solicitations received all throughout the day.
#3 – Direct Mail gives you the entire outside of the mailing piece to persuade your recipient to open it.
#4 – Direct Mail has to be physically handled by someone. Even if the piece is headed towards the trash, there is still an opportunity for your piece to yell out, “Look at me – I have something special for you!”.
#5 – Direct Mail gives you the singular attention of your prospect. If the piece is well designed, you and your prospect may even get to spend a few minutes with each other. The longer the dwell time, the more likely the Direct Mail piece will inspire a response.
#6 – Direct Mail allows you to be very selective who receives your offer.
#7 – Direct Mail’s average response rate to an in-house (customer) list is 5.3% - almost 9 times more than email. And that can be increased by offering an exceptional value to your customer.
#8 – Direct Mail puts something physical in your prospect’s hands. No other medium does that.
#9 –Direct Mail sends the message you consider that person special enough to offer them a really good value in appreciation for their response, if the offer is truly good.
#10 –Direct Mail can be an extremely accurate tool to measure the effectiveness of the advertisement.
#11 – Direct Mail can help achieve goodwill even if the recipient doesn’t respond. This is done by letting folks see the good value of your offer. They may even keep an eye out for your next mailing.
#12 – Direct Mail goes to a single, known physical address that can be verified. Email addresses cannot be easily verified and you don’t know if it’s one the prospect even uses any more. That’s why email advertising is called a “Blast” – you need an elephant gun just to be able to hit something.
Direct Mail works best when combined with an excellent, well secured web site and the judicious use of secured email.
Direct Mail, done right, is the most effective way to drive more traffic safely to your store and online sales presence.
After all, having loyal and regular customers is the best thing a business can have.
Be Unique!
Make Direct Mail a keystone part of your communication with your customers.
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