Tips of the Trade: The Rules of E-Mail and Direct Mail Differ

I'm very bad about getting my mail.

On a good week I might go down to the mailroom off my condo lobby one or two times to peek into my little silver mailbox. Occasionally, as I'm sorting through the pile, I might discover a relic that harkens back to another marketing era called a catalog. When I do get one of these I smile and think, "Wow they're still mailing, huh?"

Say the term, "you've got mail" and let's face it, nobody's thinking mailbox. They're thinking inbox.

In an advertising world racing at lightning speed towards e-mail, social networking, SEO and SMS there's a marketing "sit in" of sorts quietly taking place. A large number of "holdouts" are hanging on to their postal presort indicias with every breath in their bodies. On any given week many list sales reps tell me that they speak to a large number of mailers who have NEVER done anything BUT postal. Because, well…they just haven't.

There will always be a place for direct mail—at least for a while. There are going to be those who gain comfort from the feel of that paper in their hands. And there are advertisers who feel comfort in sameness. But, the fact does remain that even with the proposed summer rate break, the cost of a direct mail campaign is in an upward spiral. With marketing budgets going down, can advertisers truly find comfort in ROIs being eaten up by a medium with costs that keep rising? It's a gamble many are still willing to take because….it's just what they do.

New is scary. It's scary to learn new jargon and lingo and measurement guidelines. It's scary to test when the market is already a little shaky. When you are putting together your marketing plan and need to justify a new tactic, exactly what do you put in that column in your spreadsheet where last year's catalog drop or solo mailing results are supposed to reside? New is scary to justify.

Postal speak and e-mail speak are different, like apples and oranges. Try as you might to get that darn orange on a postal carrier route, it ain't gonna go. Here's a few tips on running a successful e-mail campaign.

<B>Pulling Your List and Determining Selects</B><BR>
Traditional direct mail campaigns most often target by a specific geographical locations, while e-mail lists typically target by consumers and their behaviors.

An example of this might be the fact that postal lists are traditionally pulled by the designation of "residents or homeowners" within a particular postal carrier route or very narrow zip code radius. E-mail lists are traditionally pulled by the designation "consumers" and further targeted by demographics or behaviors within a set geographical area.

<B>Uniques Within Your List</B><BR>
In direct mail there's a need to be certain you have unique names. Because of printing, shipping and mailing costs, it essential to request unique names and go "one per" to addresses.

The same is not true for e-mail. Having every member of a family get the same postcard in one residential mailbox is wasteful. Having every member of a family get the same e-mail message in separate e-mail mailboxes is what e-mail list marketing is all about—blanketing.


<B>Determining List Quantity</B><BR>
For direct mail a campaign might be considered a viable test with a total list quantity of 5,000-10,000. However, in e-mail the same is not true. Often traditional direct mailers make the mistake of using small quantities in e-mail list tests—and this can net disappointing results.

For example, a mailer might request an e-mail list based on a very tight geographic area because that's how they are used to pulling lists for direct mail. Let's say they net a total quantity of 6,000 e-mail addresses. This mailer might further split the list into two groups of 3.000 each for multiple creatives. With the typical 0.5 to 1% response rate this mailer would net approximately 15-30 click-through per e-mail list message. If the mailer had opened up the parameters of the e-mail list and targeted by consumer behaviors or demographics for a larger universe of even 30,000 you can imagine that the response would be significantly improved.

<B>Re-mailing the List</B><BR>
Another mistake many traditional direct mailers make is the "one and out" strategy of e-mail list marketing. Where direct mail might be more response driven, e-mail is both response and brand driven. Many subscription-based record clubs report that a person might see their direct mail efforts six times or more before they place an order, but many mailers believe that a single e-mail to a single list will do the trick with just one blast.

Frequency is actually one of the factors common to both direct mail and e-mail marketing. You need to remarket to a list multiple times to know if the list is viable.

The bottom line is that there will always be a need for both direct mail and e-mail marketing. But in today's advertising world successful mailers are those who understand and embrace the concept of multichannel marketing with one medium complementing and reinforcing the other. To make the most of each drop or broadcast marketers need to understand the nuances.

Carol Lustig is marketing director of Options Media/1Touch Marketing, Boca Raton, FL.