OK, I “sexed up” the headline a bit but the newest Borrell report predicts that direct mail will suffer mightily (-39%) over the next five years as ad spending continues to shift:
The firm sees email marketing taking a larger share of direct mail’s dollars and the local/SMB email segment growing significantly from where it is today.
Email marketing is underappreciated by many. My work with Opus Research has found that SMBs consistently rate email marketing as their most effective advertising tool. This is something that local media companies should bear in mind as they seek to diversify the suite of tools and services that they offer to their advertiser-customers.
Do you agree that direct mail dollars will shift directly to email and that “local email” will see this kind of growth?
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Here’s more discussion of the numbers in MediaPost.
May 21, 2009 at 6:44 pm |
I don’t know that direct mail dollars will shift directly to email dollars.
However, I agree that the present level of direct mail spend will be among the ad dollars that will have decreased along with all other “traditional” media when the US consumer begins spending again.
The media consumer’s attention has already left the traditional media building.
May 22, 2009 at 1:01 pm |
I pay attention to some catalogs but otherwise not to direct mail at all. Yet I only pay attention to some email from retailers and others if it’s a brand or store I buy from. But even Amazon … I pretty much just delete their emails without reading them.
May 22, 2009 at 3:53 pm |
The SMBs that can afford the time and marketing strategy investment to do email right, and who offer the consumer experiences (great dining, niche products, exquisite service, etc) that warrant their attention, are no doubt benefiting from the value of email, especially vs. the media costs of it. I always worry about SMBs having something useful to say to consumers, though, especially in an email by itself vs. pooling with other local businesses (the email version of ValPak).
I would imagine one reason SMBs love email is the relative cost. For $20/mo. they can send almost as much as they want, considering their list sizes are usually so small. They don’t have to expect much return on an investment like that, so if anyone walks in the door with a printout of an email or mentions it, then it’s “gold” in their eyes. If they direct mail coupons through someone like Money Mailer, they’re likely looking at at least 10x that amount. However, SMBs risk burnout by sending irrelevant or too much email to consumers, where even local consumers will tune them out.
I doubt most analysts looking at email marketing consider the generational changes away from email to social media messaging, SMS and IM, where it will be harder for marketers to gain access.
May 22, 2009 at 4:37 pm |
Carey:
Agree with shift to social media (FB, Twitter). It’s an important point. Also many forecasts fail to offer that sort of nuance in their thinking. They operate under a few broad assumptions about the traditional media version transitioning to the similar online version.
May 24, 2009 at 4:31 am |
I don’t think we’re near the end of direct mail. I think it will still be a choice for savvy marketers.
As email users get more sophisticated and email marketing gets more entrenched consumers are going to have a much lower noise:signal ratio in their physical mailboxes than their email boxes.
Much as YP will be around for certain categories for a while I think the ROI on well-targeted direct mail is clear to those using it effectively.
Will
May 29, 2009 at 8:03 pm |
[...] Borrell: Direct Mail Next to Go « Screenwerk (tags: advertising) [...]
June 2, 2009 at 4:00 pm |
Email marketing still has a huge problem VS SPAM. With spam email representing over 95% of traffic, email marketing is uphill. Something concrete has to be done about email spam before the true benefits of email marketing shine.
The way that SPAM is currently handled is part of the problem. The community is trying to stop it at the receiving end. A backward approach. An effective solution will stop the spammers before the messages get sent. Freeing up bandwidth and the huge financial costs associated with it, including labour and infrastructure costs.
July 17, 2009 at 12:19 am |
What template are you running on this site ? I really like it. Could you post where you got it from ?
July 17, 2009 at 12:21 am |
SEO its one of the standard WordPress templates with a custom image in the header
November 8, 2010 at 4:57 am |
Great stuff ! I am just curious on how much you know about the topic. Where do you get all your information or insights?
December 31, 2010 at 1:58 am |
Parabéns pelo blog! Desejamos a vocês muito sucesso em 2011!
April 28, 2012 at 11:37 am |
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[...]Borrell: Direct Mail Next to Go « Screenwerk[...]…