Direct Mail is Dead – Long Live Direct Mail! The notion that direct mail is a thing of the past is a delusion. The arrival and rapidly expanding growth of the Internet, digital and social media fuels the flames on this misconception.
Stories of the United States Postal Service losing 15 billion dollars per day only add to this fallacy. It is true that direct mail has lost much of its punch and percentages of lead generation/sales over the past few years, but much of that is due to improper marketing beliefs in a shotgun blast approach of awareness marketing that leads no one to interest, desire and action. Correct and assertive direct mail can be a forceful part of an accurate integrated marketing system.
Is direct mail always a homerun?… No. This doesn’t signify direct mail is not important to the marketing mix. As any other marketing tool is utilized in a marketing mix, be it a web site, digital media, social media, etc., testing, challenging, tweaking are all part of the process.
Long Live the Direct Mail King/Queen/Gender of your specification.