Direct mail advertisements have several uses, and well-planned and targeted direct mail campaigns can increase brand recognition and solicit sales. Though there are a few drawbacks to be considered before investing your time and money in a direct mail campaign. These considerations are especially important if you are operating a small business with a small to moderate marketing budget.
The costs of designing effective direct mail advertisements can be high, especially if you are engaging the services of professional photographers, copy writers and artists. Paying a printing company to produce fliers or brochures can also be expensive, especially when the costs of paper and ink are high. To be effective, direct mail campaigns must be targeted with up-to-date mailing lists. These are usually purchased from list management companies or brokers, and the cost per 1000 names can range from $40 to $100 or more depending on the detail of the lists. In most cases, “one shot” mail marketing does not produce desired results. Multiple mailings over a period of time are the norm, and the accumulation of mailing costs can climb quickly.
May Offend Potential Customers
Direct mail is “junk” to many consumers. A lot of it will go directly into the garbage, and some of it will be read only to aggravate potential customers and cause them to view your company and its products and services in a negative light. Without the most recent mailing lists, sometimes mail is delivered to houses and apartments of the deceased or ill, which can be disheartening and offensive to the family and friends that receive it.
In the direct mail industry average, success rates range from 1 to 2 percent, according to the Direct Marketing Association and Pinnacle Lists--and these are the campaigns that are successful. To recover the costs of the campaign and give yourself a chance to turn a profit, you will likely have to distribute tens of thousands of direct mail advertisements.
Long Lead Times
The timing of distribution is often crucial to direct mail campaigns, however, it can be difficult to predict how long it will take to get your advertisement from the design phase through production and into the customer's hand. It can sometimes take longer than one or two weeks to produce your advertisement, depending on the complexity of the design and the material used, and then there is the imprecision of mail delivery times to consider.
Though some of the direct mail materials used today are made with environmentally friendly, 100-percent recycled materials, many are not. When you consider that you will likely be producing thousands of advertisements, 98 to 99 percent of which will be trashed, the environmental implications are not positive. Some customers object to direct mail advertisements for this reason more than any other.
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