General DM News & Commentary ↓

Good news for Direct Marketers… 

An article today on UnionLeader.com announced:

“A bill that would create a do-not-mail list to let people block direct mail ran into a major defeat Thursday. The House Commerce committee voted 14-1 to recommend that the full House kill the bill.”

The 14 that voted against the bill said the state doesn’t need to get involved because consumers already have the option of being removed from mailings lists by contacting individual merchants and Direct Marketing Associations.

More good news for Direct Marketers:

An article on Forbes.com about the slumping economy outlined industries that are expected to slump and industries that are expected to hold up.

Direct Marketing was chosen as one expected to hold up.

The reasoning:

Direct mail — and other direct response advertising – yields results more easily trackable than traditional, mass-media ad purchases. And as advertising budgets shrink, Marketers will be under greater pressure to show positive ROI.

This prediction goes hand-in-hand with our post about B-to-B Magazine’s Outlook 2008 Survey.

Please feel free to share your thoughts by commenting below.

Welcome back. Have you subscribed to our blog's email updates yet? Remember - you also get the free whitepaper pictured left on cutting direct mail costs.

Our friend Karen Riley at The MDI Group has just launched her free direct response eNewsletter — called Smart Talk — and we highly recommend you subscribe.

Here’s a descriptive blurb:

“Smart Talk, an e-newsletter from Karen Riley of The MDI Group, takes a look at emerging trends and important breakthroughs in direct response. The January issue featured an informative article on the growing popularity of PURLs (personalized URLs), as well as quick hits on variable coupons, inserts, and direct mail’s continued importance in the marketing mix. She also offers some revealing findings from the 2007 DMA Benchmarks and Preferred Practices study.”

You can check out their newsletter at:

http://www.themdigroup.com/news0108.html

Or visit this page to subscribe:

http://www.themdigroup.com/newsletter.html

There was a time when many people predicted email and online marketing would put an end to direct mail.

But the reality of the situation is, all 3 marketing mediums are feeding off each other in what is now referred to as Integrated Marketing.  You combine all 3 into an overall synergistic plan that boosts marketing results.

B-to-B Magazine recently released their Outlook 2008 Survey and here are some spending stats:

• 79% of marketers plan to increase spending on online marketing in 2008
• 70% of marketers plan to increase spending on email marketing in 2008
• 49% of marketers plan to increase spending on direct mail marketing in 2008

So even though the majority of marketers plan on upping the amount they spend on online and email marketing efforts, half of marketers surveyed are still going to increase their direct mail spending.

And of the remaining 51% of marketers, 39% are keeping their direct mail expenditures the same as last year…and only 12% are decreasing their spending.

So according to B-to-B’s survey, the forecast for direct mail in 2008 looks healthy…

And combining it with the increased spending on online and email initiatives should result in some interesting and effective marketing.