Direct Mail Advertising
Direct mail advertising sends advertising messages to target consumers through the mail, either addressed to pre-selected individuals, or unaddressed and delivered to pre-selected areas. Advertising mail includes advertising postcards, letters, mailers, circulars, samples, catalogs, CDs and other commercial merchandising materials.
Direct Response Advertising
The terms direct mail and direct response marketing are often used interchangeably, but direct mail is simply an advertising medium, like print advertising or broadcast. Direct response marketing is distinct from other types of marketing in that it makes an offer and solicits a direct response. Direct mail is simply one advertising medium that direct marketers employ.
Popularity of Direct Mail Advertising
Direct mail is the most heavily used direct marketing medium, and its popularity continues to grow despite postage increases. The mail is the third largest advertising medium after newspapers and television because it can be directed to a specific target audience and sent cheaply using bulk mailing rates.
Direct mail is a particularly attractive option for small business owners, as it can communicate a lot of information about a product or service and reach almost any conceivable target group for a relatively low cost. Direct mail can be a company's sole form of advertising, or it can be used to supplement other sales efforts. For example, a small business could use direct mail to inform potential customers about its offerings, then follow up with a phone call or a visit from a salesperson.
Direct Mail Advantages
Owners of start-up businesses may find direct mail an effective method of creating awareness and interest in a new product, while owners of existing companies may find it useful for generating new business outside of their customer base or geographic area. Another advantage of direct mail is that it is testable, so that entrepreneurs can try out different sales messages on various audiences in order to find the most profitable way to market a product or service.
Direct Mail for Businesses
Direct mail is also an effective medium in business-to-business marketing. Since business orders are usually of larger value than consumer purchases, it often takes more than one mailing to begin the process of making a sale. In addition to making sales, business-to-business direct mail can be used to generate new sales leads.
The Cost of Direct Mail
The largest single expense of direct mailing is postage, and can account for one-third of the total cost of a direct mail campaign. Other costs include designing, writing, printing and packing the mailing, and buying mail lists. A four-color postcard is the simplest and most common form of direct marketing and is also the least expensive to mail. Other forms of direct marketing such as mailers, brochures, newsletters, and catalogs can raise costs considerably.