Direct Mail / E-mail working together

I have run Direct Marketing / Wave mailing / E-mail programs in tandem for over 6 years now. Each has there own special place in my arsenal of techniques to getting, gaining and keeping customers.

Direct mail can create quite an impact, with some audiences and in some parts of a marketing attack. In an earlier blog in the last 2 weeks I went over the numbers on emailing, if you looked them over you might have seen that they are indeed very cost effective, if used right. This can be even more important in tough economic times, like now perhaps?

Paper, printing and postage costs have been going up steadily while e-mail has held tight. Consumer preferences have even started to shift just a bit toward more digital from telephone (if it ever was) or even postal mail.

Given its higher base cost and the higher ROI against traditional mail it is no wonder that there are more offers going e-mail... consider the benefits of ease of use, immediacy, intimacy and intrusiveness (be careful with this one) that should be very compelling to the diehard direct marketer to deliver the right message at just the right time. But remember every thing that was good in mail is also good in e-mail. Good targeting, creative ness, solid offers. Just remember the biggest down side unlike regular mail, undisciplined use of and rampant spamming in email is a guarantee to have your name and brand damaged for years to come

Larson note: You can do email as a stand alone. I like it better not as a solitary sales tool but as a tool to use in combination with others. This keeps my obtrusiveness down to a minimum. I use it more to keep my name out in front of my customers and accumulated prospects, that to get new once. When you find a way to combine email with the good parts of business social networking it works well. I have seen over the course of the last couple of months how spammers are infiltrating Social Networking sites to the point that any mail I get there is 90% and worthless.

When putting together a solid new account acquisition program I like to lead off with a solid list for an initial telemarketing campaign folding into a mailing or wave mailing done half way thought the campaign sliding into a low cost e-mail campaign. With this 1-2-3 punch I keep my ratios higher than my competition and my over all costs lower

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
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