Direct Mail vs. Email

By Kim Frazier, principal of Frazier & Co. LLC

Walk the marketing department cube tracks today and you’ll hear inhabitants debating: is email or direct mail the best way to get our marketing message to customers, prospects and contacts?

On one side are the DMers, the direct mailers. Listening closely, you may decide that their argument against email is sound: people do not like spam, will not tolerate spam and everyone feels that most email is spam – end of story. Their cry is loud: “We must use direct mail to get our message out!”

Waiting in the cyberspace shadows are the EMers, the emailers. They sum up their viewpoint this way: “It’s not spam if people ask for it. Besides, you DMers have cost us too much money!”

Wandering the marketplace are the forgotten TA – the target audience. Your audience is caught in the crossfire of email versus direct mail marketing. Dodging one barrage of email then hit with another volley of direct mail, these folks have a hard time understanding any message directed at them. The pitch, look and feel are all the same: buy this widget, attend a webinar or forward this to a friend. Most feel that the only thing most organizations want to do is sell them something. The target audience responds like any reasonable person would – by ignoring most of it.

Determining whether email or direct mail is best for your marketing largely depends on your business model. But in today’s world, a combination of both is almost a requirement to improve marketing return on investment. The challenge for most companies lies in determining how to make methods complementary and audience-directed while maintaining consistent cross-platform marketing messaging.

Direct marketing is directed marketing
Each year, companies spend billions of dollars on direct marketing. Those expenditures support an umbrella of direct mail, email marketing, tradeshows, webinars, etc. These spokes form the backbone of marketing messaging and outreach.

The umbrella provides the target audience messaging shade from outside influences, better known as ‘competitors’. While under your umbrella, your target audience should see marketing messages stretched between each spoke. Like other bracing systems, it must be strong, consistent and work as a whole. The spokes are separate but equal, and directed to a single connecting point. That peak or connector represents the sale.

Direct mail – business for business
If you’ve read this far, you’re probably marketing your products to a) a businessperson who is, b) making a purchasing decision that is c) influencing his or her business. The operative word is ‘business‘ and the reasons for commercial buying are different from consumer purchasing motives.

Most business direct mail fails to generate response not because of a faulty list, package or offer (though each of those affects response rates). It misses because the copy is boring, not written honestly or is irrelevant to the target audience. These defects are not intentional, but result from a misunderstanding of the business target audience and what motivates it to answer a call to action.

Improving direct mail
Selling certain types of business-to-business technology through the mail is considered by many businesses to be tenuous. Companies feel potential customers need exposure to every product characteristic in the first contact or they fear missing their big chance for a sale. That philosophy is unrealistic since business purchasing is seldom done on an impulse.

But what if you implemented a direct mail plan over a period of days or weeks? That way product attributes would be revealed in a series of pieces where the audience would have time to digest features and benefits. It would also present your message in a manner that didn’t overwhelm recipients with sales data screaming, “Buy me now!”

Improving business-to-business direct mail isn’t marketing voodoo, but it does take a creative approach backed with a solid understanding of the target audience. If your company is using direct mail, try a few of the following and see if it doesn’t improve your response rates:

• Keep your copy simple, sincere and personal. Even though your contact might be a stranger, copy should read like a letter written to a friend. Keep it straightforward, yet with good style.
• Long copy is not necessarily bad. Focus on a main message and the action you want the recipient to take. Be sure the copy answers, "What's in it for me?" Every business has perceived needs – what are they and how does your offer solve them?
• Closely analyze potential markets and match your offer to those markets. If you sell through multiple channels, consider making your direct mail distinctive for each channel.
• Study your package so you know what's working. Is it the price? The timing? The phrasing of the offer? The list? The copy? The product? Which of those myriad elements, in combination or without one element, makes the critical difference in the return? Continually analyze your records until you know why you're winning and can repeat success.
• Use dimensional direct mail. Nothing cuts through the clutter and piques interest in a mailer better than bulky mail. In study after study, “lumpy” mail elicits more response (by almost twice) than flat mail alone.
• Integrate your direct mail with all marketing messaging.
• Feeling a little lost or not that creative with your direct mail? Search out a firm that can help you.

Email marketing – the Twilight Zone syndrome
Email marketing has come a long way, but big questions still remain about effectiveness. Many companies feel target audiences are as sick of email as they are of direct mail. With looming governmental “do not email” legislation, some are predicting the demise of all email. I am not inclined to write off email so easily.

We all read articles that email marketing is the answer since most of the globe is on the Internet. The good news is that numerous businesses use the web and the number is increasing daily. The bad news is that most business people hate being bothered with email that is essentially worthless.

“But we aren’t sending junk!” cry most EMers. “Our audience knows who we are, likes us, and has ‘opted in’.” True, for the most part. But if your inbox is like many of ours, I will wager much of what is in there is from companies that you like and know you. Those companies would also agree that they “know you,” yet continually email material with little relevance to your true business needs. The reason this occurs is that many companies:

• After a time, lose sight of email marketing content.
• Don’t realize their target audience’s business needs have changed, then fail to provide messages appropriate to the new requirements.
• Fall prey to believing their copy is the last word needed to convince a prospect to purchase.
• Feel that more is better. If communicating once a month is good, once a week is better.

That email marketing mindset leads to a dimension I call the “email Twilight Zone.” It’s a place beyond time and reason. It’s a space where it’s impossible to establish a business relationship. Located on the desktop, email marketing vaporizes because the recipient gets nothing but a hazy view of the business offering and then fails to respond to a misaligned approach.

Integration – “it’s a good thing”
The first time you hear a prospect say, “Oh, you’re that company” at a trade show or other event, there’s a strong likelihood your overall marketing messaging is not integrated.

That doesn’t mean your significance isn’t sound; it just indicates the target audience isn’t connecting your marketing messaging. Granted, your audience is ultimately responsible for linking your marketing dots, but the process is more difficult if those points aren’t focused.

Take time to ensure your email marketing is aligned with other marketing efforts. Direct mail, advertising and trade shows should all interconnect with your email marketing to provide a single image, brand and position. By doing so, you’ll increase the likelihood of your target audience, making your activities a “good thing.”

Tune up or tune out
You’re not alone if your email marketing efforts are falling short. It’s harder than ever to get through to your audience, and sophisticated spam filters and firewalls increase the chances your message will be sidetracked. To maximize their investment, many of our clients consistently invest serious dollars in market research. They use the results to monitor business climate changes, then develop messaging and delivery strategies with relevant information for their target audiences.

If your email marketing efforts are missing the spark they once might have had, it might be time for a tune-up. Consider these few ideas to breathe some life into your current email marketing efforts or strategize on a new initiative:

• Review your email marketing strategy and make sure it still fits business goals. It’s easy to change business focus, only to realize your messaging reflects an “old strategy.”
• If your website has changed or is about to, make sure email marketing efforts complement the change.
• Analyze your click-through and open rates. Sounds simple, but just counting the numbers isn’t analyzing. Contact some of the target audience that click through to see what motivated them to engage further. Take that information and modify it or repeat it in future efforts.
• Offer your contacts content that works for them; otherwise, be prepared to have your “opt out” percentages increase.
• Ask your target audience not if they want to be contacted, but how often they want to be contacted.
• Sharpening efforts with your in-house team has benefits, but consider an outside firm specializing in email marketing. Check out www.eroi.com and www.anvilmedia.com to get a sense of services offered by two top-notch firms.

Direct mail and email marketing are cost-effective ways to reach your potential and existing clients. Those marketing methods can also be financially rewarding. However, consistency and audience relevance wrapped with integration are essential to make any marketing activities appealing. No matter which marketing inbox the message lands in, you’ll reap significant gains by paying attention to the real needs of your prospects and clients. You might even hear them say, “Thanks for making my life a little easier.”

About the author 
Kim Frazier is principal of Frazier & Co. LLC, a Corporate Marketing Products and Services business. He can be reached through the Frazier & Co. LLC website (www.frazier-co.com), at kf@frazier-co.com or 503.697.8798.