Email vs Direct Mail: Which Is More Effective for Your Campaigns?

Email vs direct mail: Getting an edge over your competition should be at the top of any business for better market share and more revenue.

At the heart if this is, of course, the marketing strategies that any business would want to adopt and implement, however, with the current fluid and dynamic market trends, it is even more important to get the right tactics to get you the customer attraction and conversions required for success.

Some of the most used and familiar marketing tactics are the use of mail- both direct where you post to customers and prospects as well as email which is more geared to content marketing. What is the difference between the two and which one should you use?

For a long time now email has been considered as an amazing marketing medium that provides marketers with maximum reach for very minimal investment.

It has served as an essential element for many marketing campaigns across all industries. Direct mail, on the other hand, has begun to resurge despite falling out of favor over the past few years.

It is proving to be quite popular with those people who are utilizing this medium in new and creative ways.

The two mediums are very different with each offering contrasting benefits to the other and also being suited to totally different audiences, particular campaigns or industries.

The only question left to be answered is how to choose the right medium to meet your marketing needs.  Let us explore the pros and cons of each marketing medium

Email pros

Email vs Direct Mail: It Is Cheap, Efficient and Fast

Emails are very cheap to create and send although you still need to take the time to craft your copy carefully.

It is an amazing form of marketing and has one of the best ROI in the market right now. It is also very fast as your message gets delivered immediately.

The speed of using emails has enabled marketers to be able to conduct A/B testing on various aspects of the email and thus come up with a campaign strategy that will be received warmly by their prospects.

Email vs Direct Mail: Email Marketing Is Favored In Most Industries

This is due to its speed and affordability. Many people prefer to use emails because they can access them from anywhere at any time thus making email marketing the most widely used medium on the market today.

Email vs Direct Mail: It Is Amazing For Data Analysis

The results you get from your email campaigns can easily be analyzed using email campaign management software. The feedback data can include the following open and click-through rates, bounce etc.

Email vs Direct Mail: It Is Very Convenient

When you provide links to your services and products you make it very convenient for the recipients to understand what you are trying to tell them.

This is because the links provide them with quick access to more information about what the email you sent them is all about.

Email cons

Email vs Direct Mail: Spamming

This has made the work of email marketers very hard. There has been a tidal wave of spam on the email platform that the users are finding annoying thus making the email marketers have to battle with inbox authenticity and recipients are always short on time.

Email vs Direct Mail: It Takes Time to Build a Solid Email List

As an email marketer today, you have to build your email list through incentives, direct sign-ups and pre-approved permission which will take a lot of time and effort to achieve.

Email vs Direct Mail: Email Is Very Limiting

The features of an email limit the creativity of the marketer. Despite the strides that emails have taken over the years they still produce moderately good looking materials.

Direct mail pros

Email vs Direct Mail: Direct Mail Is Very Flexible

The flexibility of direct mail ranges from print QR codes that prospects can scan using their smartphones and get taken directly to your website to printing impressing discounts on postcards.

Email vs Direct Mail: It Is Seeing Very Impressive Modern Interaction

Many marketers today are utilizing this platform to encourage downloads, social media activities, audience/business rapport and online purchase.

Email vs Direct Mail: It Provides Marketers with All the Space They Need

This marketing medium provides you as a marketer with all the space that you would require to tell your story, unlike emails.

Email vs Direct Mail: Recipients Are More Receptive

Most people today are still using direct mail than they are emails. People will take more time to read a postcard than they will to read an email thus making direct mail a very powerful marketing tool.

It is however vital that you ensure the marketing material you create is outstanding and enticing enough to make the recipient want to read it.

Email vs Direct Mail:  It Provides You with The Platform To Convey And Encourage Emotion

This medium provides its users with space and time to read their materials so that they are free to express any emotion they would like.

Direct mails cons

Email vs Direct Mail: Direct Mail Is Expensive

The cost for using direct mail is quite high and is dependent on the materials that you use.

The postage prices which keep rising are not helping with this either. This makes it very important for you to ensure that you target the right audience and the content you are sharing is relevant.

Email vs Direct Mail: Direct Mail Takes Is Time-consuming

When you decide to create a direct mail marketing campaign it may take you up to 3 months from the beginning until the postcard is delivered.

Email vs Direct Mail: It Is Quite Difficult To Track Direct Mail Success Rates

You have to keep track of the promo codes used on each postcard produced which can take months. This system is also not quite as automated as that of email marketing.

Email vs Direct Mail: Direct Mail Has a Very Low Conversion Rate

Only 1 out of every 1000 people who received a postcard actually converts into customers. This is caused by a number of factors and one of them being that most people do not actually use posts today.

It is advisable that you make use of both methods so as to maximize your marketing strategy.

This is because you may find that direct mail works with a certain group of people while email works with a different group and both groups are in your target audience.

Each method has its own benefits with these benefits being the disadvantages of the other.

Direct mail and email marketing complement one another and thus would work better together but it’s up to you to decide which marketing method meets your business’s needs.

Each business is different from the next and thus the method that works for one will not necessarily work for the other business.

The only thing I can say is that direct mail is now finding its footing in the marketing world and is likely here to stay.

If you had not yet decided to take advantage of what it has to offer then it’s about time you reassess your options.

I hope that this article helped you to get a clear picture of the differences between direct mail and email marketing.

These differences are meant to help you make a choice of the right marketing strategy that would best suit your business.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. I hope it was what you were looking for.