Sales messages are used to promote specific products and services. Companies continuously strive to develop marketing strategies to reach their ideal customers. In doing so, direct mail and email campaigns usually play a huge part in prospecting and nurturing customer relations. Let’s take a look at how the two compare.
Faster. Email can be typed and delivered in a few
seconds after clicking the SEND button.
Direct-mail takes a minimum of a day and possibly up to weeks to arrive.
Cheaper. Email doesn’t require any printing,
addressing, postage stamps or trips to the post office.
Easier. Email messages can be created, duplicated and distributed to multiple people simultaneously with a simple click of a button. Email can also be automated to send messages at a future date. With messages flowing with less intervention, marketing teams can dedicate time in other areas.
DIRECT MAIL
Powerful. Direct mail is slower
than email but it is personalized and tangible, actually touched by the
recipient. It can be kept, shared or passed
on to others.
Acceptable. Regardless of
whether direct mail is considered by some to be “junk mail”, it is still
accepted as normal. However, unsolicited email
is viewed as a problem. Often email is deleted without being read or blocked by spam
filters.
Noticeable. When comparing
daily email items received to daily direct mail items received, the direct mail
is generally less. Therefore, direct
mail will likely be more noticeable when it arrives with fewer competing items.
While faster, cheaper and easier may be preferred, thought has to be given to the overall concept. Creating a powerful, acceptable and noticeable campaign may be more beneficial or effective. Most likely, business will use both direct mail and email to promote their brands and build customer relations. Determining which is most effective and when they should be used will depend greatly on the response received from each campaign.
