The world has been changing and companies have been struggling with finding ways to get new customers. Years ago we started with door to door, direct mail, to email, to social networks, and we are very soon coming back to a full cycle. Due to the rising cost of living, door to door sales and marketing is almost not an option for many small to medium size business. Next best thing is direct mail, do believe it? Read below. If you are a company is just starting or as all small to medium size business looking for ways to grow your business, direct mail is still effective and will even grow. Unless you are one of the very large companies that have thousands of fans to follow, then the social network marketing approach is not for you. If you are a big name, then followers will follow you on facebook and Twitter, and of course you can go for TV adds, big Yahoo banners, etc. But if you are a small to medium size business, you will be surprised as you read this article to know that direct mail is still very effective way of marketing. The term direct mail here in this article, refers to quantities of mail prepared for mailing at reduced postage rates. Although some might think that direct mail is something of the past, they are wrong. With email and internet people got so excited about it so companies like yours started doing advertisement through email, but before we know it, software companies came up with email blockers, which put the advertisement material in the spam box with absolutely no value. So, direct mail still very effective and still cost effective. The cost of obtaining a list of a target audience with their email address is much more expensive than obtaining just their regular address. The difference is significant enough that would pay for the postage. So, for one to say that regular mailing is more expensive is not a very true statement. If you already have your E-mail list and you are not going to buy it, then, yes regular mail might be more expensive. But on the other hand regular mail is not filtered. If the mail piece made it to your mail box you will at least give it a chance and scan it yourself, on the other hand and email might come to you and goes directly under the “spam” box without you giving it a thought. So, even when E-mail is less expensive it might not be as effective.
Another reason why direct mail is still effective is that we tend to change our email addresses much more than we change our regular address. Obtaining a solid email list is becoming very difficult, having this email list update is impossible. While with regular mail you can keep your mailing address always updated through notification of an address change which is a service the post office provides. In fact most, if not all, direct mail service providers now provide this service before even sending out the mail. Couple of other thoughts on direct mail versus E-mail marketing campaign is that people don’t take E-mail advertising serious, unless one is expecting an email from certain individual or certain company, one takes an E-mail from an unexpected source very suspicious, while with the regular mail (direct mail) one is much more comfortable opening an envelope that has advertising material or looking at a postcard or a flier than opening an E-mail from an unidentified source. So, if you are looking for new customers because you want to grow or you are starting a new business, think direct mail. You will also notice that people would give more attention to something that they hold in their hand or stick on their refrigerator, than just an E-mail they received. You have to also remember that people are getting tiered of junk E-mail. So go back to the old fashion direct mail campaigns, they will work better.
Usually direct mail is prepared by a direct mail service provider. These are companies that prepare the mailing in accordance to post office regulation so they can obtain the postage discount. These companies could be called different things, like mail house, letter shop, bulk Mail Company or simply direct mail Company The process of mailing a larger mailing to obtain postage discount is very involved and can’t be just done by non professional just because one has the man power. The service pays for itself, because usually the discount of the mailing is much greater than the service a direct mail company will charge. This is because they can not do the work professionally, have the equipment, software and most important the know how of preparing a large amount of mail.
