Category — Direct Mail

Before you aim that revolver at me and start shooting, you should know that I love direct marketing. My career began in the direct mail industry. It was love at first sight and I’ve never looked back. Of course back then we proudly called ourselves catalogers or direct mailers. Things have changed.

Today, catalogs and direct mail have been marked for extinction. Surveys show that businesses are reducing their budgets for traditional marketing and expanding into new media. While some of the surveys may be self-serving, one fact remains: the way we communicate with our customers is changing.

On the surface, we seem to get it.

We have changed our name to multichannel marketers and dabbled in some of the new media. If a rose by any other name is still a rose, then a cataloger by any other name is still a cataloger. We don’t need a name change, we need a paradigm shift. [Read more →]

It has always bothered me that a 3% response rate is considered successful in direct mail prospecting. I know all of the arguments. (”It’s part of the acquisition costs. We’ll make it up with the next mailing.” “The breakeven is low, so a lower response is profitable.” And, my personal favorite, “It’s how things are done in the mail order industry.”)

I’ve even been known to offer a little justification myself. But there is an indisputable fact: a 3% response rate equals 97% failure. For those of you uninitiated in the mail order industry, this rate is only acceptable when you are prospecting. Even so, it is a scary number.

The reason I adapted to the status quo was that I couldn’t find a better way. It doesn’t matter how much data you have, it is impossible to select prospects with a high rate of accuracy. This is due to individual preferences that only appear when you get to know someone very well. [Read more →]

Many purveyors of social media have declared that traditional marketing is dead. In their minds, direct mail was the first casualty in the battle between viral and old school sales tools. Their rally cry “Stop marketing and start engaging” is gaining traction as companies seek new ways to generate revenue without increasing costs.

The idea of going viral in a social media world is appealing. It’s easy to imagine your company racking up page views on YouTube, tweets on twitter, and posts in blogs around the world. It is only a matter of time before mainstream media picks it up and your shopping carts and cash registers are filled. [Read more →]