Email marketing has become the go to media for “print” advertising over the last few years. It is cheaper, faster, and put right into the inboxes of your target. It seems that email has some serious advantages over direct mail, but that list of advantages has made email the favorite media of spammers, and makes it far harder to get a prospect to read your message.
It’s hard to argue against the price point of email versus direct mail. It costs less to develop and deliver email, but marketers are not the only people who know that little bit of information. Your consumer base knows that there is a larger investment of time and money in a direct mail campaign, and no matter how solid your offer is that extra investment can be perceived as a more legitimate offer.
Of course, after the offer has been made and a prospect has decided to get more information they need to be able to tell you. Email does have the one click away advantage, but there are tools that make direct mail nearly as easy to use. First, there is always a good old fashioned phone number. Believe it or not some people still like to talk to others, not me, but I have heard stories. Listing your web address on the mailing is a pretty standard practice, but for the more technically savvy and socially disinclined QR codes can be printed and scanned with any web enabled smart phone with free software making the response to a mail piece one click away. Yes, you do need to check your mail to get the marketing offer in the first place, but email inbox delivery is far from guaranteed.
The offers for discount vet meds, little blue pills, and requests from Nigerian princes to make you a millionaire for doing nothing has led to spam filters being created that leave messages lost in the junk mail folder unread, and wasted. Even if your message manages to get to the intended target you are lucky if the prospect will read your subject line before it gets thrown in the trash. At least with direct mail you’re prospect will have something real to look at. Email messages are intangible and ignoring a bit of data from an unknown source is simply easier than ignoring something you are holding in your hand.
Sometimes cheaper and faster are not the advantages that people think they are. With a well developed mail campaign you can get a better response rate, add legitimacy to your business, and get responses nearly as fast as an email campaign. Plus if your clients are anything like me they will delete the email, but that pile of mail on the kitchen counter will get your mailing a second look as soon as they get around to cleaning up a bit.

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