Why Use Direct Mail As Part of Your Marketing…Isn’t Everybody Online And Tied To Email Anyway?
January 23rd, 2012 by Diane Conklin under Direct Mail. No Comments.
One of the biggest questions people ask about direct mail is isn’t everybody online these days? And, why would I invest money in my business (or what most people ask is why would I waste my money in my business) doing direct mail?
First, you have to get over the misconception that everybody is online. That’s simply not the case. There are plenty of people, prospects and clients, people with money, who are not tied to their email and even some very affluent people who aren’t online much, if at all.
And, you also have to take into consideration the people who have opted out on your list. It happens every day, people make tough decisions about wanting to get less email so they opt-out of lists. It’s not anything against you or personal or anything, it’s just that we all get so much email sometimes we just have to manage it better and for many, that means stopping it. They may love you and your content a lot, but we all know people who have sort of just opted out of everything. So, as a business owner, and a marketer, you have to consider how you’re going to communicate with those people who you can no longer communicate with via email.
Just because somebody doesn’t want to get email from you doesn’t mean they don’t want to hear from you. For example, recently a client who puts on events and uses mail to fill their seats had an attendee make this comment to them “I’m so happy you sent me that piece of mail because I wouldn’t have known that you were in my city, I wouldn’t have known you were doing this event, and I really wanted and needed this information.”
So not everybody is online, and even people who are online, may not necessarily be seeing your emails and all the online marketing you’re doing.
So, direct mail is just another media…just like the internet is a media. You need to be integrating your marketing, using more than one media, and talking about what you’re doing in the mail in your emails as well, for example.
One is always the worst number in your business. And, one is the worse number because we know things change in life and in business and if something changes and that one thing is the only thing you are doing, it can adversely affect your business.
You may or may not remember when you used to get phone calls that interrupted you in the middle of dinner. That were cold calling and telemarketing calls. That doesn’t happen anymore because laws and rules have changed. Thos same laws and rules have changed regarding faxing as well. Businesses went out of business when those rules changed because they were only using one form of media to market their business. So, one for them, was the worst number, and it’s always the worst number in marketing and business.
You really want to use multiple media, and do multiple things, in your business, so you can be constantly dripping on your clients and prospects.
So, don’t buy into this theory that everybody is online, and that all business is being done on the internet. It’s simply not!
Check it out yourself, by seeing how much mail you’re getting these days. Are you getting mail from companies like American Express, Southwest Airlines, Marriot, Toyota, and other big companies like that? A lot of companies, big companies, Fortune 500 companies, are using direct mail very effectively because it works, and because they’re getting results from it. The question you might want to ask yourself is if they’re using it and having success, shouldn’t you be?
The big companies might be mailing different pieces than you and I would mail, but they’re using direct mail because they know they have to reach people in multiple ways. They can’t just reach people online anymore, or through one media, you need to be following that lead and adding mail to the other things you’re doing.
So, if you are online, what other things are you doing? Email, social media, PR, radio, TV… there are a lot of media out there that you should be taking advantage of. Remember, not everybody is online and there are still people in this world who like to get and read their real mail…the kind that comes in the physical mailbox.
