As margins get tighter and competition increases, marketers around the world are searching for ways to increase efficiency and return on investment (ROI). While new and uncharted marketing channels are appearing every day, it's the recent innovations in one of the most trusted mediums that are delivering unprecedented response rates and profitability.
Direct mail marketing, with its unique capability to reach individual consumers, has been practiced since the invention of the Guttenberg press in the 15th Century. In its modern form, direct mail response rates have hovered around 0.5 to 2% providing consistently profitable results. However, in the past several years, aggressive advances by digital printers and direct marketers are increasing response rates by as much as 500%.
At the heart of direct mail's increased profitability are recent innovations in database manipulation, digital variable data printing and cross-media marketing. This paper will explore how companies can dramatically improve response rates and ROI with these next-generation direct marketing technologies.
:: A Situation Snapshot ::
The technology boom of the last two decades has changed marketing challenges and opportunities faster than business textbooks can track. Here are three trends that have facilitated and made necessary recent direct marketing innovations.
Trend 1 - Online Audience
Today, more than 75% of all U.S. adults use the Internet, a number that goes up to 92% for the 18-29 age group. Of this online audience, 66% have made a purchase online. This can only increase with the next generation of consumers, which will be made up of "digital natives;" young people who have never experienced life without
the Internet.
This overwhelming adoption of an online lifestyle has affected how consumers interact with marketing, and direct mail has become a tool that readily complements online marketing. One of three direct mail recipients now prefer to respond online, and a recent study found that 21% of consumers visited a retail website within 30 days of receiving direct mail, up 50% from 2003.
Trend 2 - Consumer Choice
Globalization, the internet market place, and the proliferation of small, niche companies have combined to give consumers a larger selection of products and services than ever available before.
To attract and retain customers and differentiate themselves from their growing number of competitors, businesses are now....
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