Only Direct Mail gives you
Flexibility: You can mail anyone your message at any time, using any format. You can send postcards, letters, color brochures, free samples, co-op mailing, even a bowling ball! The choice is up to you and your budget.
Targetability: Choose precisely the audience you want to reach and speak to them, and only to them, one-to-one.
Measurability: There’s no guesswork. By tracking and analyzing your mailings, you’ll know how you’re doing.
Accountability: When you see how well mail works, it becomes its own justification, a “self-funding” medium, if you will.
Privatability: Not only can you reach your customers without your competition’s knowledge, but you can also allow your customers to see your message, without distraction.
A Competitive Market & A Limited Budget
As you know, consumers today are more sophisticated. And they’re bombarded constantly with advertising messages from everywhere. Television. Newspapers. Magazines. Radio. Cable. Even the Internet. And how do you reach your target effectively in such a demanding marketplace without spending your entire advertising budget? Especially if it isn’t a huge one?
Direct Mail is the only form of advertising that lets you precisely pinpoint your target audience and gives you measurable results. Fast. You get clear-cut information that’s easy to analyze. And, unlike advertising in mass media, you know precisely who you’re speaking to. So “waste” is kept to a minimum. (For example, if you have a landscaping business, you won’t be mailing to apartment dwellers.)
The Science of Direct Mail
What’s more, with Direct Mail, you know exactly how many pieces of mail you sent out, who got them, how much each piece cost to send, and how many responses came back. This information makes it easy to calculate cost-per-order or cost-per-response. You can even track how much repeat business and income a sequence of mailings has generated over a longer time period.
In short, Direct Mail has truly become a science. It’s precise. Effective. And, dollar for dollar, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more cost-effective advertising medium.
A Flexible Business Tool
Another great feature of Direct Mail is its flexibility. Whether you’re a large or small business, it can work for you in a variety of ways. In fact, more and more successful businesses are discovering Direct Mail’s versatility as an effective tool for generating awareness, leads, store traffic and even customer loyalty. No matter what you want to accomplish, chances are you can do it through the mail.
For example, let’s say a competitor has announced a new deal/price/offer. You can immediately launch a Direct Mail counterattack that offers customers one that’s even better. And since you have the opportunity to talk to consumers one-to-one, in the privacy of their own homes, chances are your competitors will never know what hit them.
Direct Mail is advertising that you share with your customers, not your competitors. By reaching them through their personal mailboxes and not through more “public” environments like print, radio or television, you can take advantage of something very unique: speaking to your audience “in private.”
The Tell-Tale Economic Story
In 1986, American businesses spent $17.1 billion on Direct Mail. Ten years later, that figure more than doubled to $34.5 billion. By 2002, Direct Mail is expected to grow to $51 billion!- a sustained annual growth rate of 6.4%.
In today’s competitive world, there’s no stronger testimonial to the power of Direct Mail.