Marketers are spoilt for choice with marketing media to choose from now, so it’s surprising that DM remains so popular. According to Royal Mail, B2B DM volumes in 2006 reached 1091.04 million items with total expenditure on B2B, £2321 million. The reason for these huge numbers is probably because it works. DM remains highly cost-efficient for the returns it produces and integrated with other marketing vehicles, it has proved itself a vital component of the overall mix, driving qualified prospects to more detailed messages pushed out through other channels. So how do you get the most from it?
The most creative design and targeted content in the world will have no impact if it’s sent to the wrong person or company, so the investment made in building the right mailing database is critical. A study from the Institute of Direct Marketing (IDM) found that a list’s quality had the largest bearing on the effectiveness of a DM campaign, potentially increasing responsiveness six-fold (compared with a 1.35 per cent increase in effectiveness if the design was good versus poor).
