Retail Leaders Still Count on Mailings to Deliver Sales

Any retailer hesitating over the role of direct mail in their marketing mix should read a recent Entrepreneur magazine article that spotlights how much today's retail leaders count on physical mailings for sales success. For example, Costco, which sends 8.6 million magazines per month, reports that 56% of members who receive the magazine buy something based on what they read in it, according to article author Shaun Buck, CEO of The Newsletter Pro. Costco did consider dropping the print version in favor of a digital version to cut costs during the Great Recession--until it found affluent members overwhelmingly preferred a print edition. It's no surprise Costco now projects print circulation growth for the foreseeable future. Williams-Sonoma, parent brand to seven companies including Pottery Barn and West Elm, also considers catalogs "a very, very important part of the marketing strategy,” and 50% of the company’s marketing budget is spent on catalogs each year. Online men's retailer Bonobos, which only entered mailed catalog marketing in 2013, now sees more than 20% of its website’s first-time customers placing orders because they received a catalog in the mail--and spending 1.5 times as much as first-time buyers who did not receive a catalog. Author Buck adds that when The Newsletter Pro is late with its own print newsletter, phone consultations with prospective new customers drop by 25% to 33%! For the complete article, read https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/275303

Pairing Mail and Digital Can Max Marketing Power

Digital marketing and traditional direct mail marketing often seem to run on parallel but separate tracks. However, several recent articles show why an intersection of online and offline is a more desirable destination for marketers. Consider a Forbes magazine article by Jenna Gross, CMO of the national direct marketing agency Moving Targets, who explains how her agency combines digital marketing with direct mail to deliver a powerful one-two marketing punch. In her June 1 piece, Gross describes how her agency pairs all direct mail campaigns with digital advertising, using the identical demographic and behavioral data, and leveraging e-mail marketing to boot. As a result "prospects see an ad in their mailbox, inbox and social media feed." Using such "cross-media tactics produces an exponentially better response rate, typically 25% or higher than direct mail alone, based on my agency’s findings," Gross says. Meanwhile, a MarketingLand.com post by Lewis Gersh, a leader in retargeting and e-commerce, argues that the marriage of digital and direct mail is also an ideal way to deal with the tough problem of cart abandonment and lost digital conversions. Currently, digital marketers spend 10% to 50% of budgets on retargeting efforts, he points out, yet many fail to capture attention in the noisy digital landscape, or fail to even reach the growing number of customers who resort to ad blocking and unsubscribes to escape the digital marketing onslaught. In contrast, direct mail has the advantage of guaranteed arrival and attention as a physical, tangible presence in the home of consumers, where it can be saved and referenced in future and also can be seen by people other than the intended recipient, which is rare for digital media, Gersh points out. So, leverage digital and direct mail advantages to solve the retargeting challenge, he urges: Apply digital's valuable real-time, intent-driven data to direct mail, transforming online activity into mailing of a highly relevant piece that retargets a known site visitor. To read the full Forbes article, http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2016/06/01/how-to-deliver-a-one-two-punch-combining-direct-mail-with-digital-marketing-tactics/#7216e69f4342

Just the Facts: Why Direct Mail Is Alive--and Thriving

DBM Designs' experience as a partner with successful direct mail programs has helped us ignore the perennial claims of direct mail's demise. But for marketers who still doubt snail mail's continued marketing power, we're happy to share this year's facts from the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) 2015 Statistical Fact Book and its latest Response Rate Report. For one thing, company spending on direct mail continues to grow, not shrink, with $46 billion spent on direct mail in 2014—up from $44.8 billion in 2013. Organizations also are expected to spend $9.3 billion on data for direct mail in 2015, an increase over the previous two years. One reason for direct mail's staying power with marketers is that it continues to lead in response. Average response rates for direct mail are 3.7% for house lists and 1% for prospect names, which are both higher rates than for mobile, paid search, social media. Internet display ads and e-mail. For example, e-mail scores an average 0.1% response for customers and prospects. Only telemarketing beats direct mail in response power at 9%-10%, per DMA data. At $19 average cost per acquisition for house lists, direct mail acquisition also costs less than paid search ($21-$30) and Internet display ads ($41-$50) and is close to the $16-$18 CPA of mobile and social. Direct mail does lose out to e-mail ($11-$15) on CPA for house lists. But DMA's most important metric--median ROI--shows why direct mail in still in the game and not on the bench. Although e-mail and telemarketing lead in median ROI (21%-23% and 19%-20%, respectively) compared with direct mail's 15%-17%, direct mail ROI is still on par with social media and way ahead of mobile, paid search and Internet display. For more direct marketing industry benchmarks and response details by direct mail package type and customer target (business or consumer), see http://www.marketingcharts.com/traditional/direct-media-response-rate-cpa-and-roi-benchmarks-53645/