DM Vs Email?

[Newby]

Dan - I have many clients who are looking for software that can help they with email marketing as many of the email services do not work well with purchased email lists. Can you recommend a software of method for my clients to use with email marketing? I know that with Google Sheet and Gmail, you can mail merge which allows you to create and send individual emails directly to a specific email list. However, the mail merge feature only allows up to 100 emails per day. Which is great for smaller campaigns, but not on the larger ones. Also, I know some of my clients use ACT as well which has an internal email feature for sending individual emails in a bulk format, but I have not been able to determine how many emails ACT is capable of sending. Any tips would be helpful. Thanks.

I don't use Act's email features. But they were bought by Swiftpage a couple of years ago. I think it's pretty integrated now. http://www.swiftpageconnect.com

 

[Damion]

Hello all. New to the forum.

I was curious what your thoughts were on direct mail vs email marketing?

My boss has put me on a project to find targeted email lists for commercial and life/Medicare suppl and also a company that can send the campaign for us, as we'd prefer not to do it ourselves.

We're licensed in 11 states but would start off in Texas, and just wanted your opinion about success rate. From my research it appears email marketing can be daunting and a hassle, and direct mail could produce around a 4% response rate.

I'd assume email is much smaller? Am I completely off base here? Thanks.

I did not have time to read all the responses so someone else may have already touched on this.

As someone who does both, my first question is why are you looking to choose?

DM can be very cost-effective to blanket areas. You can use the EDDM service to blanket routes and have two calls to action (call or check out website). On your website, use a good call to action (free report/book/etc) to capture their email address so you can continue your marketing to them.

I find that most of my clients' DM response rates run in the 1-2% range on direct calls, but we can also usually pick up another 2-3% response to the website for those that are nervous about calling right off the bat.

If you are running paid traffic from Google or other PPC provider to your site, DM using EDDM to blanket can actually be a MORE effective method than PPC traffic unless you are using very specific keywords (long tail) because most generic keywords are high competition, equating to high per-click costs.
You can send DM using EDDM for around 30 to 40 cents per door, printing and postage included, if you do all the work yourself (send it to a printer though unless you have a good printer with a low per-piece cost). You can further reduce your per-piece cost by partnering with other businesses, but expect your response rate to dip slightly if you do.

The trick with either is to have a good, measurable call to action. And measure every aspect of it. Measure the call-ins by using a coupon of some sort (for something free if possible) or use a separate phone number just for response from the piece. Measure website clicks by using a new domain operating as a redirect or a custom landing page for that mail piece only.

If there is a way to track it, you want to track it. This is the only way to gauge your effectiveness. It will also allow you to see what types of calls to action work over the long term the best so you can work with your piece until you get everything perfect for highest conversions. Just don't change things too much at once or you will not be able to accurately gauge which changes work. you also want to make sure your piece is working for your branding because that will increase conversions over time.

 

[justinds]

Direct mail is still highly effective in the insurance industry, especially considering the demographic of people buying certain types of insurance isn't as digital heavy as others, but I like the ease, cost effectiveness, and various tracking and beta testing abilities that emails provide. I'd mix and match your strategies, see what's giving you the best ROI and dump your marketing budget into whichever tactics are hitting for you.

 

[Lovinglife1268]

With all the DNC folks out there, I use DM as an add on .... sending them to my landing page with videos. I would love to get 4 % .... I tend to get 1-1.25 %

 

[HoosierLife]

Only 14% of emails get read.

 

[Sanford Smith]

Hello all. New to the forum.

I was curious what your thoughts were on direct mail vs email marketing?

My boss has put me on a project to find targeted email lists for commercial and life/Medicare suppl and also a company that can send the campaign for us, as we'd prefer not to do it ourselves.

We're licensed in 11 states but would start off in Texas, and just wanted your opinion about success rate. From my research it appears email marketing can be daunting and a hassle, and direct mail could produce around a 4% response rate.

I'd assume email is much smaller? Am I completely off base here? Thanks.

With the drastic growth of digital communication in the past few years, a considerable portion of marketing efforts has been allotted to such campaigns. Also, we experience that the traditional methods like direct mail postcards still hold a lot of value. Postcard marketing is one of the most affordable forms of direct mail marketing, and allows for a ton of creativity. These kinds of campaigns help to seek business from prospective customers, and solicit repeat business from existing customers. There is a right time to use each method, and that depends on our objective and what we want to communicate. I recently came across a blog post by Mr. David Kaye - Vice President of Sales for Carol Ann Marketing in West Chicago - which explains how postcard is utilized for a direct mail marketing campaign. In my personal experience, I would prefer direct mail advertising over email marketing.

 

[LostDollar]

This topic/issue/concept may get revisited due to mailing rates. I just happened on an article saying that USPS is proposing a first class rate increase to 55 cents for 2019.

 

[sshafran]

This topic/issue/concept may get revisited due to mailing rates. I just happened on an article saying that USPS is proposing a first class rate increase to 55 cents for 2019.

Most marketing mail goes out as machinable 3.5 oz. or less. It ranges from $.256 to $.300 based on how you sort it and where you drop it off at.

I pay $.287 for most of my mail. When I lived in Columbus near a DSCF, I paid $.256.

Even if it goes up 3%, we're still looking at a penny per piece. Or, $10 per thousand. In other words 55 cents doesn't matter to businesses.

Some how, some way... I think we'll still be able to mail our marketing pieces.