The Pros and Cons of Email vs. Direct Mail
Why you need a strategy for both.

You’ve read the headlines:  “Postal Costs on the Rise,”  “Email Open Rates Continue to Fall” … What’s a direct marketer to do?

While there are advantages and disadvantages to using direct mail and email marketing, one thing is clear—these tools are more powerful when used together, in a well-integrated campaign. 

Some of the advantages and disadvantages of each channel include:

Email Marketing

The Pros

• It’s quick.  You can set up, deploy, and complete an email campaign from start to finish in a week.
• It’s cheap.  Especially for your customer file if you have gathered email contact information.  It costs almost nothing. 
• It’s great for testing.  The digital medium is fast and flexible for split testing different offers and creative.  You get the results quickly and can roll them out across all media.
• It’s great for surveys.  Get customer feedback with the ease and convenience of low-cost online survey tools.
• It’s great for lead gen.   Email is the easiest way to offer e-newsletters, case studies, white papers—all easily downloadable from an email link.

The Cons

• It adds clutter.  People are overwhelmed by email.  You must compete with everything else in a recipient’s inbox.
• People don’t read.  You’re lucky if they read your subject line, or the information in the preview pane.  Messages must be short and simple.
• HTML emails get trapped.  Spam filters are getting tighter all the time.  Creative messages that use HTML can get caught in filters and never arrive.
• When it’s over, it’s over.   There is no response tail.  In a few days (if you’re lucky) it’s over.
• You don’t reach everyone.  It’s impossible to get complete market coverage with email, so you won’t reach all of your customers and prospects.
• Good rental lists are hard to find.  Most organizations guard their email lists like gold.  Finding a good outside list can be a challenge.

Direct Mail Marketing

The Pros

• People read it.  At least, more than they read email.  It’s the best medium for show and tell.
• You can be creative.  There are no spam filters to trap your fancy creative and images.
• You can offer more.  Direct mail is the best option to offer a catalog of products and services.
• People save it.  If you send an interesting direct mail piece, people are likely to keep it, file it, and go back to it later. You could potentially get responses for a year or more, especially if it’s a catalog. 
• You reach more people.  Direct mail has broader coverage and better deliverability.  To reach all of your customers and prospects, direct mail is still the only choice.

The Cons

• It costs more money.  Direct mail is more expensive to produce.  There are more cost components that contribute to the total cost.
• The cost increases are shocking.  Postage, printing, and lettershop costs are all on the rise—dramatically.  Creative and list costs can be high as well. 
• It’s time-consuming.  Direct mail costs more in time and effort. It takes longer to print and mail.  You need to plan ahead.
• There’s a reason it’s called snail mail.  From the start of planning a campaign to final results can easily take six months.  In today’s world that is an eon. 
• You’ll need a larger staff.  The logistics of direct mail are complex.  You’ll need a larger team or more outside experts to help you implement your direct mail program.

What’s a direct marketer to do?

Think of email marketing as your SWAT team and direct mail as your workhorse.  Use them both for their strengths and implement strategies to minimize the weaknesses.

Testing and constantly evaluating your ROI is critical, particularly as costs rise.  A formula that works today, may not work after the next postal increase.

Here are some recommendations:

• Use email to cultivate and nurture your customer file.  Append email addresses to increase your email coverage.
• Consider using direct mail to reach customers and prospects only when you do not have an email address.
• Use customer profiling to identify the top percentage of your file for more targeted direct mail promotions.  Send cheaper promotions to customers and prospects in the lower percentage of the file.
• Use email to test new product and creative offers whenever possible.  Then apply these results to your direct mail.
• Work with printers to test cheaper direct mail formats that may get equivalent or more economical results.

Acxiom can help you implement an effective direct marketing plan.  To speak with an Acxiom specialist, call toll-free 866-977-6018 (8:00 – 6:00 ET Monday through Friday) or email us at IBLExpress@Acxiom.com.

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