Direct mail is … back? Actually, due to the effectiveness of direct mail, it never went away. Its reputation as a high-value marketing channel whose results are testable and verifiable over multiple iterations (in contrast to ever-more questionable online marketing) has strengthened its appeal over the past 20 years. Oh, and the only personal information direct mail collects occurs strictly at the discretion of the prospect.
Therein lies a tale.
The digital world was pitched as a land of milk and honey for advertisers and marketers as the internet grew more robust and sophisticated. “Ditch those old analog channels like direct mail,” they said, “and enter a world of real-time trackable messaging and heightened engagement.” At the time, with their current and future customers expected to migrate to life online, marketers lapped up promises of virtual one-to-one brand conversations and hyper-relevant messages served up to customers and prospects in real-time, among other “breakthrough” marketing innovations.
Turns out there was a problem with those promises. A lot of them were a crock and didn’t live up to the effectiveness of direct mail.
Why Do You Need Direct Mail in Addition to Marketing Online? Here’s Why:
John Wanamaker, a pioneering marketer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, gets qualified credit for the phrase, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” The same issue — or worse —confronts those companies that have ignored the effectiveness of direct mail and pushed all their chips over to online/digital marketing.
- Researchers estimate that about five display ads out of 10,000 get clicked on. And almost every one of those 10,000 ads is capable of harvesting information about the person the ad is served to. No matter how much of their privacy people are willing to trade for convenience, online ad stalking is still creepy.
- Most online marketing is done via programmatic buys through third parties. According to the Incorporate Society of British Advertisers (ISBA), 50% of the dollars to pay for that marketing get diverted by various entities before they reach online publishers. Do you know where your online marketing money is going?
- A recent report from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) estimates ad fraud to be about $120 billion.
Which brings us to good old reliable, trackable, non-stalking, highly effective direct mail: a marketing channel that lets you determine precisely how much you spend, where your money goes, and what your exact return on marketing investment (ROMI) is once the results are in.
There’s nothing cryptic about our methods at IWCO Direct. Our goal is to get you a better ROMI. To accomplish that, we use sophisticated, proven direct marketing strategies and expertise to go beyond demographics to predict attitudes, analyze behavior, and focus your marketing efforts where you’ll get results — immediate and long-term.
No, we don’t recommend abandoning digital marketing altogether; we often supplement our clients’ direct mail campaigns with online components. Yes, we are saying that relying on digital media as the sole or primary source of customer prospecting, retention, or win-back may lead to less than satisfying results for you and your audience.
Get the ROMI You Want Thanks to Data-Driven Testing and Award-Winning Creative
Every marketing dollar counts, and at IWCO Direct, we aim to deliver the maximum ROMI. With its data-driven insights, trackable results, and accountable spending, direct mail is the rock star performer you need in your marketing strategy.
Contact the experts at IWCO Direct. We’re here to make your marketing better.
