Direct Mail – It stays around longer to get the job done

            It wasn’t too long ago that some marketing industry analysts were sounding the death knell for direct mail because the Internet and e-mail marketing were going to make it obsolete.  Now we have all seen how very wrong those so-called experts really were.

            Just as television didn’t do away with radio, the cyber revolution hasn’t done away with direct mail.  In fact, its actually made direct mail more effective.

            Think about all the electronic marketing with which you are bombarded every day.  Each time you turn your computer on there are dozens of offers waiting for you.  The vast majority of them are for products or services in which you have no interest whatsoever because email marketing is so dirt cheap that the spammers just send their stuff to every email address they can get their hands on. 

            Now think of how easy it is to get rid of these types of messages.  Just a touch of a key or a click of a mouse and they’re gone.  Poof.  Just like that.

            Now think of direct mail.  It doesn’t intrude on your time when you’re at your computer looking to do something else.  It arrives in your real-world mailbox and patiently waits until you have time to look it over.  It has come to you because you have previously shown an interest in the product or service which it offers.  And, when done well, it is a lot harder to just get rid of it because it is something real – something that has a perceived value in your hands. 

            And … it works.  To the tune of  $100,000,000,000 in sales last year alone.

            Direct mail.  It’s been around.  It’s going to be around.  And it stays around until it get the job done once it arrives in your prospect’s mailbox.