For one thing, direct mail is “multi dimensional.” It is something the prospect can see, touch, smell, and even taste if appropriate. When properly designed, a direct mail piece is a personalized, customized, individualized means of inviting a prospect to become your customer. Or it can be clever way to remind your current customers how much you appreciate your business - And how much more innovative you are than your competitor! How to go about crafting these innovative, customized, individualized, nuclear powered direct mail strategies will obviously vary with industry, purpose and budget, but there are some neat ideas out there. I’ll bet the publishers of this newsletter would be happy to discuss them with you!

We also know that direct mail is often dubiously associated with a lower response rate than some of its peer marketing tools. Hey, it’s a fact. However, the another often-overlooked fact that direct mail is the least expensive way to reach the most prospects or customers.

For example, assume that you’re able to get a 3 or 4% response rate. If you’re targeting the right market and have the other elements of your marketing mix aligned correctly, that 3 or 4% return could have a very favorable return for your investment in the long run. In fact, as long as you’re able to convert half of the 3 or 4% who do respond, again assuming you’re targeting the right audience, you’ll probably find that you and your bank account will be happy with the results.

Since I’m the same consulting genius who said that bell bottoms would never return in popularity, and that Garth would probably fade away after three albums, I’ve learned to be a lot more tentative in making statements about what the future holds! I will say this, though, with no asterisks attached: Don’t forget about the demonstrated power of direct mail!

Dr. Burt Smith, CME, CQM, PCM
PO Box 720542
Oklahoma City, OK 73172
(405) 748-5835

Dr. Burt Smith is the president of Oklahoma City-based Executive Marketing Information (EMI), a market research and consulting firm specializing in customer satisfaction research systems. Smith is a past-president of the Oklahoma City Chapter of the American Marketing Association under whose leadership the chapter won its first excellence award from AMA headquarters in Chicago. Smith is a Certified Marketing Executive (CME), a designation offered by the Sales & Marketing Executives International held by less than 1400 marketing professionals worldwide. He is also hold’s the American Society for Quality’s Certified Quality Manager designation and is was the first Oklahoman to earn the American Marketing Association’s Professional Certified Marketer Designation. Smith is also a Marketing Professor in the MBA program at Oklahoma Christian University.