Contributed through OnDemandJournal.com from the
I've lived at the same address for eight years. I cut my own lawn, build my own stone walls, and my wife is an avid gardener. You'd think that by now the 103 landscaping outfits and chemo-grass companies who call me and send me their offers would have noticed I don't respond. And I keep hoping the newspaper that calls like clockwork every three weeks on each of our household phone lines will come to understand the word "No." This past week they failed to understand it twice in one day. They all persist in offering things I don't care about and will never buy. I happen to like Saabs, and while Saab (and Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Volvo) send me personalized offers, so do all the other car companies and dealer groups, apparently hoping I'll switch to a bottom-feeder. OK, OK, having worked for an auto manufacturer, ad agencies and a mar-com company, I know how all this works, but I still wonder about the marketing folks who justify their jobs based on volume of mail sent instead of the effectiveness of their mailings. But I'm actually looking forward, in the next year or so, to getting direct mail that may actually be relevant.
Thanks to initiatives such as the national "Do Not Call" list and increasing efforts to stem the rising tide of the spam in our e-mail, direct mail will almost certainly grow in importance as a marketing tool. Contributing factors include print advertising being in the tank (have you noticed the continuing paucity of ads in your favorite magazines?) while TV advertising suffers from channel surfing, mute switches and technologies like TiVo.
This all leaves marketers without many options except direct mail. But the direct mail that will begin arriving in our mail boxes before long will not be the junk mail of yesterday or even today. And expect some of it to be tied to e-mail, as marketers use both mediums to reach prospects more effectively. In past articles, I've noted how SourceLink substantially enhanced response and sales for one of its customers by using both paper mail and e-mail. This is going to become a lot more common and will likely extend into marketing messages on statements.
"It's a cultural shift," says the president of one midwestern direct mail service bureau that a
The Comfort Factor
A key strength of paper mail is its comfort factor. "You have a more secure sense of where a mailpiece is coming from," notes Bill Dale, general manager of Pitney Bowes Document Messaging Technologies. "With an electronic message, you can 't always tell who is really sending it or where the links are going to take you." Additionally, he says, mail is still a more traditional medium for all age groups, the touch and feel process is more familiar than on the Internet, there are fewer visual distractions (no flashing GIFs!) and transactional documents in particular can be better targeted.
As Barb Pellow describes in her article (www.ondemandjournal.com/specialfeatures/pellow2.cfm), targeting and associated customization is no longer the challenge it once was. A broad range of vendors and service providers are offering software and services that make extensive personalization faster and easier. Having and maintaining well-constructed databases is still essential, but as Pellow notes, the process for putting the variable content on the page can be outsourced if you don't have the resources to do it internally.
Over the past year or so, a number of print providers have begun adding mailing services, looking for ways to add value for their customers and draw in more revenue. Some of them, equipped with digital printing systems, see combining variable print and mail as a way to increase their share of their customers' wallets. Meanwhile, service bureaus have ratcheted up the level of intelligence and data-to-mail integrity in their mail center often while adding full-color digital printing capabilities. They plan to maximize the range of documents they provide customers, leveraging their expertise in variable data printing.
These are strategic moves that prepare companies to compete in an evolving marketplace where print, mail and the Internet are all connected and drive messages that customers will open, read and be more likely to act upon. Let me know how you see it.
Noel Ward is the executive editor of OnDemandJournal.com and is a print industry consultant, speaker and writer focusing on digital printing strategies and content development for print and electronic media. He conducts technology assessments, market research and competitive analyses to build strategies that help companies optimize the processes associated with document creation, production and distribution. Please offer your feedback to Noel. He can be reached via e-mail at noel@ondemandpublishing.com or to learn more, you can visit the OnDemand Web site at www.ondemandpublishing.com.
