Spinfield: Web marketing trends today, tomorrow, and beyond…

Well, postage went up again. Doesn’t it seem like it was just yesterday that the good old United States Postal Service raised its rates?

It got me to think about the real cost (not just postage) of a direct mail campaign and the countless reasons it just doesn’t make sense anymore. Of course, I need to jump on my green bandwagon and state the obvious: it’s more socially responsible! But, if going green isn’t enough to make you switch, think about the economic impact direct mail has on your marketing budget.

When I thought it through I could not come up with one compelling reason to stick with snail mail. Here’s a few pros and cons to be considered:

• Pro: With e-mail your piece can be created in a matter of hours (maybe less). Con: with direct mail you need to go through the lengthy process of creation, editing, recreating, printing and mailing. It could take weeks.
• Pro: With e-mail marketing the creation process costs only the salary of the creator. Con: Ad agencies are expensive.
• Pro: With e-mail marketing you can personalize your message to target the recipient. Con: With direct mail there is only minimal personalization that can be done with maximum effort.
• Pro: The per piece e-mail charge is pennies. Con: A standard, one page, color letter cost is estimated by Cendix at $1.46 per piece.
• Pro: With e-mail you can expect same day delivery. Con: USPS takes days, especially if you mail bulk.
• Pro: With e-mail you know who received the message, who opened it, which addresses bounced, who clicked through and more with sophisticated tracking tools. Con: With direct mail and only if you go first class will the post office forward or send back the undeliverable pieces.
• Pro: With e-mail it’s simple to track the ROI on the campaign. Con: It’s very cumbersome to track what business was generated from the direct mail piece.

I think it is obvious that e-mail marketing is the way to go. If you want, add to my list or let me know if I’m completely off base. Call me at 216-674-1600 x110.

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