An article in this weeks edition in Marketing Week questioned the future of direct mail in the face or increased pressure from digital direct response channels. With direct mail volume dropping 7.4% from 2006-2007 and showing a continual decline in since 2004 has the measurability and accountability of digital mediums put pay to the direct mail industry?
For a two page, center piece article I have to say that this seemed to me like a massive over reaction to the success of digital in the past few years. The article eventually comes to some sensible conclusions about the evolution rather than death of direct mail and EHS Brann CEO Matt Atkinson makes the most valid point “consumers are not saying they don’t want direct mail, they are saying they don’t want junk mail!”. it is not about cutting direct mail from you marketing mix but rather becoming more intelligent and targeted in your activity. This is likely to mean volumes will drop but not necessarily that return will follow, more likely you will just become more efficient.
Every piece of the marketing mix has a benefit, either direct return or impact on other media. Do you think there would be so many searches for finance companies brand terms on the search engines if the companies didn’t do so much offline activity? Of course there wouldn’t, it is all about striking the balance and appreciating the impact one media has on another. I have experienced it first hand when a company has cut offline activity as they are getting better returns online only to see a drop in overall performance as their offline exposure stops pushing people to the search engines.
With the growing emergence of digital channels it was always going to impact other channels in one way or another, after all, economic circumstances aside, there are only every going to be a finite number of people in the market for your product at any given time. It makes sense then, that if a percentage of these people start to use the Internet to find a supplier then the number of people using the other channels should see a dip. What marketers really need to consider though is how to make the most of the whole marketing mix in order to maximise the opportunities the market holds, and rather than wield the sword at the under-performing media, stop to think about the impact they each have on one another.