For some time now, we’ve been seeing decreasing interest in anything that’s emailed in bulk. Maybe people are less curious about marketing messages that appear out of the ether in their mailboxes. Maybe they suspect that opening or clicking through may leave their computers open to infection. Maybe, being busy people, they just view emailed messages as an intrusion into a space that should be their own.
Whatever the reason – we suspect that the ease with which it is now possible to email in bulk has produced too much of the stuff! – you have to say that in most instances, it’s just not producing results.
So, many of our clients who have been watching the response numbers fall (one of the great things about outbound emarketing is the availability of amazing statistics!) are turning back to printed material when they want to get noticed by clients who aren’t in the habit of dealing with them.
What is different is the way that response is chanelled. That has to direct recipients to a website these days. There’s just no escaping that fact. And best if it can be a microsite, specifically set up to handle response to a particular message. Reply-cards (remember them? we still do them as a back up to some mailings) won’t be returned unless there’s a good incentive, but websites for some reason, seem to hold no fear for sales prospects and it seems (from the cross-section of clients we are working with) that factual messages perform better than anything.
So, welcome back direct mail. We’re sorry to see those envelopes again, but they’re working, at least for now.
0 Responses to “Hello again, direct mail”