I am frequently told by people that postal mail is an anachronism, a “dinosaur”, and email marketing is the way to go.  There is only one problem with this – it’s simply not true.  Click title to read the entire article!

In this country (the USA), the use of postal mail campaigns has not significantly diminished, it is still flourishing, while at the same time, we see many limitations on email marketing.

Emails are all too frequently relegated to “spam” or junk-mail folders, the intended recipients never seeing them, or, they are clicked on, given a VERY cursory glance, and deleted immediately.

At the same time, postal mail, especially when crafted well, is actually held in someone’s hand, and can be set on the side of a desk for further investigation. It’s much harder to ignore, and response rates prove this.

From the DMA: “The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has found that direct mail boasts a 4.4% rate, compared to email’s average response rate of 0.12%, says Yory Wurmser, director of marketing and media insights at the DMA.”

While postal mail costs more, considering the cost of the list, creative, printing, and postage, its return is significantly higher.

In the end, the only metric that is really important is “Cost to Acquire a New Customer”. How much to you have to spend to get a new customer?

If you send out 10,000 emails, get 12 responses, and close 1 or 2 sales, calculate the costs of sending out that mailing, and divide it by the number of sales. Email is NOT free – you still need to buy a list (usually more expensive than postal lists), pay for creative, pay for deployment, tracking, etc. So, figure it out.

If you send out 10,000 postcards, and get 440 responses, your chances of closing sales just went up significantly. If you close 10%, that’s 44 sales, vs. 1 or 2 sales via email. For higher ticket items, such as extended warranties, this can greatly reduce the comparable cost to acquire a new customer.

Each method has its proper usage. Each is better for some things. The key is to understand which to use, when, and how.

But, certainly, reports of the death of postal mail are greatly exaggerated….

Give us a call or email us today to talk about your list needs. While we specialize in Automotive consumer lists (i.e. private car owners), we can get a wide variety of all sorts of lists – B2C, B2B, Postal, Email, Phone, Cell Phone, and you will definitely like our customer service.

You can reach me (John Poris) directly at 248-535-9576 or [email protected].  Visit our website at www.porisdata.com.