Direct Mail Email: Its Edge Over Direct MailDirect mail is defined as a direct marketing strategy wherein marketing communications are distributed to customers through the postal service. Bulk mail, junk mail and admail are other terms for direct mail. Its popularity to marketers lies with the fact that its effectiveness is highly measurable. Moreover, it enables marketers to target their marketing efforts to a group of people or consumers who are most likely to avail of the products or services being advertised. With the advent of Internet, many in the business sector contend that direct mail email marketing is a marketing trend that threatens to outperform direct mail. Direct mail email advertising, some contend, is now slowly replacing direct mail as proven by the increase in email advertising revenue from $948 million in 2001 to $126 billion the following year. Moreover, it was also noted that many advertising campaigns are now delivered online instead of through conventional direct mail. One of the factors identified to have contributed to this scenario is the increasing cost of postage. Direct mail turns out to be more expensive than broadcast e-mail. Moreover, the direct mail email is quicker to produce and by consequence, it also produces results faster. Distribution of direct mail email is also faster and takes place within seconds as compared to direct mail which takes days before they are received by recipients. The growing popularity of the Internet also led to the increase in email audience. Since more and more people have access to the Internet, more and more people can receive email messages. Customer responses of email advertisements are also a lot quicker. Within a few hours from sending an email advertisement, marketers can expect inquiries, clarifications, and explanations from interested customers. In order to address the challenge of handling a large volume of customer inquiries, pre-written responses may be prepared. A key to doing this is to anticipate what customers may inquire about an advertised product or service.
However, before making a transition to a direct mail email campaign, it is important to determine first if the target market of the advertised product or service can be reached online. It should be noted that though people in a market niche may have email addresses, it does not automatically mean that they check their emails regularly. This marketing strategy might work if the target market is comprised of business accounts because most business executives communicate through emails. Moreover, marketers should ensure that email recipients are likely to open their emails. Usually, customers automatically delete email messages that appear as advertisements. Experts recommend that direct mail email messages be personalized to compel recipients to open the mail and read the marketing offer. Companies that market their products and services this way should maintain a customer database of email addresses for future email advertising campaigns. The information can be stored through sign-up sheets that are placed in front desk of offices or through an email register in the web site of a company. However, when collecting email addresses of customers, it is important to gain their permission so that they would not feel that their privacy is being invaded. |