Direct mail is the key element among all the promotion channels used by direct marketers. According to Direct Marketing Association (DMA) research report 2007, 90% of direct marketers use non-catalog direct mail as a promotion channel and about 46% say that it is their primary channel for promotion. About 39.6% of businesses use direct mail (non catalog), where as only 6.1% of businesses use direct mail (catalog) as primary channel for promotion.
Direct mail extends lead in promotion channels:
Among the different channels used for promotions, direct mail (non catalogue) leads with 39.6% followed by 15.9% of commercial email, 9.1% of Internet marketing as the primary channel of promotion. On an average 45% of B2B and B2C companies use direct mail as the channel of promotion. B2B companies spend about 43.3% where as B2C companies spend about 50.8% of their total annual budget on non-catalogue direct mail channels for promotion.
URL is the most popular point of contact:
Among B2B and B2C firms that use direct mail promotion channels, about 84.4% and 78.8% respectively provide URL as the contact for service information. And among B2B firms 64.4% provide toll free number, 62.6% provide an email address as contact. And when it comes to B2C firms 75.9% provide toll free number and 57.65% of mailing address as contact point for service information.
Large and small revenue companies prefer direct mail:
Direct mail (non catalog) is used as the main channel by consumer marketers and middle and small revenue companies. When it comes to B2B firms, commerce email is more common among small and middle revenue companies. These companies receive their responses through Internet by 93.7%, phone by 79.5% and through internal sales force by 70.8% from their clients.
B2C and B2B firms use direct mail for different purposes:
B2C firms mainly use direct mail promotion channel for customer retention followed by sending special and one-time offers. When it comes to B2B firms, direct mail is used for customer acquisition than sending newsletters and announcements.
Many B2B and B2C companies prefer direct mail as their primary promotion channel. Though there is a significant growth in online channels such as Internet marketing, still direct marketers use direct mail as a key channel for marketing promotions.
