Email, Direct Mail & Sampling
Email and/or direct mail may seem like cheap ways to reach customers, but they can be very expensive if you haven’t done your homework!
Email and direct mail are very similar marketing tools – it is the distribution method that is different.
Email uses Internet delivery which provides quick customer access withsavings on postage and printing.
Direct mail uses traditional home delivery methods with associated printing and postage costs, but also with tactile, “in-hand” advantages and opportunities for product sampling.
Both methods offer ways to:
- target specific audiences
- contact and build relationships with current and prospective customers with information and offers.
Both methods require careful planning for best results. Expect about the same return rate with email as with direct mail – 1% to 3% is about average depending on how targeted your list actually is. The better you target, the higher return you can expect.
Email/direct mail marketing
1. Who should get my email and/or direct mail marketing message?
No sense sending to people who aren’t interested! Be able to describe your customers in terms of demographics, geography, likes and dislikes. You should have at least three different customer descriptions (or more) and an idea of about what percent of your business each type of customer represents.
photo by Pulitzer Prize winner Joe Marquette
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