Using Direct Mail As Part Of An Integrated Campaign
Why Integrate?
All companies that achieve good results through their marketing activity will admit that they utilise different facets of the marketing mix to achieve their results. This may be advertising, Internet marketing and telesales, or a combination of any other forms of marketing.
It is common sense to realise the fact that the more forms of communication you utilise, the more the likelihood that your message will be heard. Getting through to high level decision makers is challenging. Getting a positive response from them is even more challenging. Carefully timed multi touched campaigns are much more effective than single isolated campaigns. Why limit the response you can get from your marketing effort and budget, it makes sense to use a multi-faceted approach.
Direct Mail is the least effective of our marketing services when used in isolation, but it really comes into its own when integrated with other marketing services. The reason direct mail does not perform as well as our other services (2-5% response rate) is because it takes more effort to respond to. Email, telemarketing and Internet marketing are much more interactive and easier to respond to. But by combining a direct mail campaign with telemarketing increases the effectiveness dramatically. Direct mail is the only service whereby you can initially send out your company brochure/promotional material hard copy, so when you follow up direct mail with a telemarketing call, they already have some of your material to refer to and keep on file.
In today's business environment, many of us wonder how we ever survived without the Internet and email. But many companies do not have access to these services due to the nature of their business. Also many individuals who get bombarded by Spam are less likely to open their email regularly; therefore direct mail is an effective way to contact these individuals whom may not have access to email/not regularly read their emails. Thus sending out an integrated email and direct mail campaign will ensure the likelihood that more people will receive your message.
The beauty of Marketing Addiction is the fact that our clients can mix and match as many or as little of our services and comprehensively integrate them to provide a consistent, high reach, effective communication. The rule of thumb is that the more forms of marketing that are used effectively within a campaign the better the results. For many companies it may not be realistic to use all forms of marketing, they don’t have an unlimited budget, so have to get the balance right between expenditure and results. At Marketing Addiction we understand this, which is why we have put together a comprehensive range of direct marketing services. We aim to become an integral part of our clients marketing department, usually working in conjunction with their existing and ongoing marketing activity.
