7 Keys to Marketing Genius: Direct Mail
The following is an excerpt from The 7 Keys to Marketing Genius by Michael Daehn
Thankfully, my mailbox is only a few short steps from the dumpster. I walk over and throw away handfuls of advertising and handfuls of the advertisers’ cash. The rate of return on direct mail has been steadily plummeting over the years, and response rates remain only a fraction of a percent. If that does not frighten you, then perhaps the widely circulating e-mail encouraging people to mail advertising back in the postage-paid envelopes might get your attention. Of course, this wastes even more of the advertisers’ money, but the point is that people are not only irresponsive to unsolicited mail, but becoming hostile as well. Unless you have data that shows your mail piece is of value to the recipient, you should invest your money in another tool.
If you do use direct mail, make sure it is tailored to the needs of the recipient like the catalog example above. Terminix had a successful direct mail campaign that sent notices to homes in the path of an infestation of termites. In this scenario Terminix was providing useful information about a potential problem and offering a solution. This was not mass advertising since they only sent the pieces to those homes that were in danger.