Don’t write off direct mail

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Direct mail isn’t dead. However, marketers are modifying how they use it. Custom mailings to a select group of people are becoming a more common marketing strategy, replacing generic marketing pieces sent to a mass audience, reports The Wall Street Journal. Although e-mail is a lower cost marketing method, some businesses are experiencing lower response rates with online messages.

Even with revelations about the value of direct mail, fewer pieces of advertising mail are being sent. Direct mail dropped by 27% in the third quarter of 2009 compared to the same quarter a year earlier, according to Mintel Comperemedia.

Marketers say the key is sending mailings that stand out from the rest of the items in customers’ mailboxes. Small companies are taking advantage of that theory. They are sending direct mail that captures recipients’ attention by incorporating appealing design and personal messages that compete with the online marketing of large competitors, says Eric Anderson, a professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. In addition, marketers are evaluating results from direct mail campaigns that incorporate a follow-up message sent by e-mail.

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