Direct Mail:
Your Online Campaign's New Best Friend
by Mike Gray

I’m continually surprised by how many capable marketing professionals have completely given up on direct mail in favor of online-only marketing programs. I hear it again and again from people who have worked in direct marketing for years, “We’re getting good results using e-mail and online banners, so we never use direct mail.”

What surprises me is not that online campaigns are working but that so many people have never tested the combination of online and direct mail. They simply dove into an online-only plan a few years ago when e-mail was a no-brainer and search terms were cheap, and they haven’t looked back since.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with an online-only strategy if you’ve arrived at that strategy through proper testing. Unfortunately, many marketers have tested their online-only strategy halfheartedly or not at all.

Of course, many good marketers never gave up on direct mail. Sure, many cut circulation where testing showed it was more cost-effective to spend money online. Most developed new contact strategies that combined online and offline communications. In every case, however, they kept testing. And, as a result of that testing, most kept mailing.

Lately, however, I’m hearing from more people who are struggling to achieve their objectives with online-only programs. As click-through rates decline, e-mail bounce rates rise, and paid search becomes more expensive, many marketers who were once wedded to online-only strategies have reached a point where they simply have to try something different.

Often, something different is direct mail. And the results are encouraging. In most cases, people who have been dealing with declining online results are seeing nice improvements when they test a combined online/mail strategy.

For example, a Seattle e-commerce company recently tested and validated a cross-sell program that combined direct mail with an existing e-mail campaign. Frankly, it was a bit of a desperation move by an organization that has only one distribution channel (online) and has never really figured out how to capitalize on a growing list of prospects. Adding direct mail to the communication mix increased sales by 60%. Thanks to testing, they now have a proven strategy for converting online leads into paying customers.

A membership campaign for a non-profit organization showed similar results. Several years after giving up on direct mail in favor of an e-mail-only strategy for membership renewals, the organization returned to the mail in an effort to boost declining renewal rates. Adding mail back into the mix lifted renewals by almost 40%.

Whether it’s lead generation, customer acquisition, or customer-base marketing, testing has shown that using direct mail in conjunction with online marketing efforts can provide a significant boost to the bottom line. The key, of course, is testing.

If you’ve been using an online-only model, give some thought to testing direct mail. Even if your online results are satisfactory, you could be leaving money on the table by ignoring direct mail.

Michael Gray is Vice President of Direct Resources Group, a Seattle-based direct marketing agency. He has over 20 years experience managing direct marketing programs for a variety of organizations.