In the late 1990's, the dot-com boom drove fear into the heart of direct mailers everywhere. Email was becoming the communication method of choice. If we believed everything they were telling us, the end of postal mail and direct mail marketing was at hand.
What the doomsayers forgot was that people actually enjoy getting mail. And what direct mailers have known all along was other types of marketing fail to be as effective as direct mail marketing because they cannot offer personalization, efficiency, return on investment, and piece-in-hand while remaining unobtrusive.
CCI ran a series of articles in 2000 addressing some of the differences between internet marketing and direct mail marketing. You can read the September, October, November, December 2000 issues at www.mailcci.com/past_issues.But many things have changed since then so here are a few more points to consider about direct mail and how it compares to other types of marketing.
As many of you know, do-not-call lists have been employed in most states now, and a federal, nation-wide list may be forthcoming. Some of you may already have joined a do-not-call list. And why not, the telephone call is an annoyance, an intrusion into out private lives. Legislators have heard our demands and made it illegal for someone to contact us after we've made it known we wish not to be contacted.
Door-to-door sales are making a slight comeback as do-not-call lists thwart telemarketers. But door-to-door is inefficient, and cost-prohibitive as it requires manual labor and transportation, which are very expensive. So expensive that no one can afford to employ door-to-door sales on any significant scale.
Spam-blocking software has grown into a sophisticated industry. As frustration grows over the amount of time spent dealing with Spam, a niche has opened in the software market for applications to help users bypass, block, or delete Spam before it can annoy its intended recipient. At least with direct mail, the recipient sees your message before they decide they are not interested.
Some still rely on fax marketing but most have abandoned that as the print quality of fax machines and their delivery reliability are both questionable. But faxes are like email and telephones in that we own the device and we feel the security of those devices are our responsibility. But the mail is not only not owned by us, it is secured by the USPS, still perceived as a government agency by most people.
There are do-not-mail lists in use today. Many non-profit mailers use these in their acquisition mailings to remove people that wish to not be solicited. But there is no law enforcing the use of do-not-mail lists as there is with telemarketing do-not-call lists and Spam. Why? Because direct mail is non-intrusive.
And don't we prefer to know with whom we're dealing? Where did that fax come from? Is it someone you can call and talk to or will you get just a fax machine? Who actually sent that email? The reply-to address is probably not there or is a bogus address that will lead you nowhere. And think twice about clicking that "remove me" link they gave you. Many of those are just collections sites amassing addresses to email to again and again and again. And who is on the other end of that phone call? Is he really calling from the company he is soliciting for? Most likely not. But he does have your name, address, phone number, and possibly more personal details like your social security number, birth date, names of other family members, account numbers, etc. I'll bet you're not feeling very secure now.
But not so with direct mail. The post office has very tight regulations and makes accountability a priority. The USPS even has its own police force of postal inspectors whose job it is to protect you and me.
