If You Had To Choose . . .

For your business, if you had to choose between implementing a marketing strategy via direct mail or e-mail, what would you be your preference and why? A saw I conversation in a Facebook group early this week and I thought I would post to see other people’s thoughts and opinions.

I think there is definitely a place for both, but for the sake of answering the question, I would choose direct mail. Even though many businesses are going paperless, I still believe some are very fond of tangible items. People, regardless of their preference, still like to hold and touch. As one of the five senses, it is natural. Then, there's always that special holiday or birthday card that comes via direct mail that strengthens customer relationships. Yes, you can do this via e-mail, but in my opinion, the affect isn't the same. Don't get me wrong, technology advancements are great and useful, but the original methods will never be irrelevant.

 

It depends what businesses they are as don't forget many people don't respond to junk mail and bin it straightaway or a secretary will. I know from working in an office if people are busy, junk is binned automatically or if it is opened no one keeps it. Emails can go to spam and get deleted too, but unless it's something like a book, most letters won't get more than a few seconds of attention unless there is a gift inside.

 

Direct mail is very expensive when compared to email marketing. Even if you buy a good list, most of the recipients will throw away anything they regard as being junk mail. You need to work out what percentage of recipients you will need to respond if you are to cover the cost of paper and envelopes, postage and the list you have purchased.

Email marketing is aimed at people who have already shown an interest by opting-in to a list or signing up for a newsletter. They will be more receptive to what you send them in an email. The only costs involved are buying or building a list from your own hosted site. You can use an email service that will send them out in bulk and provide you with an analytical report on the number of views, clicks and rejected emails.

 

Direct mail can be effective if use the right messge to the people you are sending the ad to. A postcard type direct mail my get trashed but it will also get read before it is trashed. There is a greater chance that the ad piece will be saved if it is addressing a need that the person is reading it at the moment has.

 

Email is probably the best way forward for a new business. It's easy and free. In my experience, junk mail gets consigned to the recycling bin immediately so it can be a real waste of money. With email marketing, although mails might not even get opened, the subject still appears in your inbox, meaning that it will be seen. The subject should give some clue as to whether the recipient will find it interesting enough to open, whereas you don't get that with direct mail.

 

I would probably stick with email marketing, though personally I have very little experience with running email campaigns and really need to learn how to do that more. I suppose one advantage of direct mail these days is because people are using it less and less, you might stand a better chance of your stuff getting noticed instead of being lost in a sea of other junk mail like it would have been 10 years ago.

However email offers so many more opportunities to track the performance of your emails, create "drip" campaigns to follow up with people, and build out a larger mailing list that you can market to periodically for free aside from your time. Sitting around an office attaching stamps to postcards or preparing hundreds or thousands of envelopes to mail out to potential customers is not only expensive due to the shipping costs, but less convenient and very time consuming.

Also, with Email, you can better see how it's influencing other advertising channels by tracking cookies. So maybe your paid search traffic isn't converting directly, but those visitors, who then get follow up emails ultimately may convert from the emails at a later date.

 

I think Email is good because it is free and easy to use. The only problem is that there are times due to busy schedule that your customer cannot read your emails. It is also very convenient for both you and your partner (business) since you do not need to pay for mail and as long both of your have internet communication is faster, no more lost mail.

 

Direct mail would be much better. Emails add up to fast and they can become a nuisance to go through. I do love technology as well but emails are a pain to deal with.

 

I never ran a business so I think it would be good to use both strategies. Email is what people constantly use so they would be checking it constantly for new updates. Mail marketing would be good if you knew the people who are your leads and would get a legit sale from.

 

Both of these marketing strategies definitely have pros and cons. Personally, direct mails kind of require much hard work. With the advent of technology, I think emails are now much better.