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Informal poll... email or direct mail?

by shawnlebrun
6 replies
I was chatting with a few marketing friends today and
the question came up whether direct mail works better
today or email marketing.

I used to advise clients to use both, and never an
"either/or" approach.

But I'm curious... if you only could use one of those
today to sell a product/service, would you go with
email marketing or direct mail?

Just curious what others think.

Thanks,
#direct #email #informal #mail #poll
  • Profile picture of the author ThomasOMalley
    Direct mail...hands down.

    You know it will get delivered...and much more impact with less mail in general.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alex Cohen
      Originally Posted by ThomasOMalley View Post

      You know it will get delivered
      Not really. Printers have been known to "lose" a significant number of envelopes before reaching the post office.

      And when sending bulk mail, non-delivery rates have been known to be in double digits.

      Alex
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  • Profile picture of the author Alex Cohen
    Originally Posted by shawnlebrun View Post


    But I'm curious... if you only could use one of those
    today to sell a product/service, would you go with
    email marketing or direct mail?

    Just curious what others think.
    It's a question that can't be answered easily for at least two reasons:

    1. Not all niches can be targeted effectively on the internet, so the only choice is direct mail or space ads.

    2. While it's true that direct mail outperforms email marketing, think about how long it takes to test a direct mail or space ad campaign. In the same amount of time, dozens of email campaigns can be tested.

    So for me, it's niche/product dependent.

    Alex
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  • Profile picture of the author Rezbi
    Isn't email a form of direct mail?
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve The Copywriter
    So the beleaguered prospect having been subjected to 127 different ads yesterday (they ignored 99.79% of them - and have forgotten the other 0.21%...)

    ...didn't wake up this morning thinking "Oh wow another beautiful day in paradise, now I simply must look in my in box and see which kind people have been thoughtful enough to email me with a special offer...

    ... and I can hardly wait for the post to arrive because with a bit of luck they'll be a fascinating letter from a fantastic company who may be very keen to sell me something..."


    So, the medium doesn't matter all that much providing it reaches your target audience - it's the message you put on it that's important.

    Always try, if you can, to make your prospects day with something that really is sizzlingly good.


    Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author johnrone
    Originally Posted by shawnlebrun View Post

    But I'm curious... if you only could use one of those
    today to sell a product/service, would you go with
    email marketing or direct mail?

    Just curious what others think.

    Thanks,
    The answer to this question is relative to your targeted customers and niches. So it would depend on the type of people you want to market with and the product you have. Let us not also forget the content of the mail and how it would entice your customers or prospects to respond to the mail.
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