Whether you’re a large or small organisation, a non-profit, a revenue driven business, a local or a national company direct mail advertising remains one of the most effective and value for money avenues that you can take for organisational promotion. Interested to hear more? Read on below.
Direct mail vs email
We thought it would be useful to contrast direct mail vs email, which we discuss below, particularly in relation to ROI, response rates, cost per leads and the importance of an integrated approach.
Return on investment (ROI)
When looking to promote your organisation, it can be tempting to only consider the email route; given its ability to cost very little, or nothing. This also generally means that email campaigns have a higher return on investment (ROI) than a campaign involving mailshots. The Direct Marketing Association (DMA), estimates that emails have an ROI of between 21%-23%. This is compared to a mailshot campaign, which has an ROI of around 15%-17%.
This translates to a cost per acquisition for an email which is around £3 – £5 lower than for direct mail. However, it is important to note that these figures are so favourable for email because of the little to no cost for the campaign. Other figures, not involving costs, aren’t as favourable.
Response rates
An email campaign has the second lowest response rate out of any other campaign, whether it’s social media, mobile, telephone, or mailshots. It has a response rate of 0.1%, while mailshots enjoy a higher 3.7%. The average click through rates for an email also sits below 2.85% for any sized company or organisation.
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Consent for mailing
With the launch of the new GDPR, many organisations are being forced to take data privacy much more seriously than they ever have done before. Whilst this impacts both direct mail and email, it in general impacts email marketing more. Over the years, organisations have collected email addresses and marketed to them without consent, this will need to stop with GDPR. Whilst the same could have happened with a direct mail database, this is usually to a lower extent and organisations generally more carefully manage these due to the costs of mailing to inappropriate recipients.
Cost per leads very similar
Some studies have also found that while it may cost little to nothing to produce emails, the actual cost per lead sits at around the same level as that for direct mail.
The importance of an integrated approach
What is clear, from the above stats, is that your organisation should be taking an integrated approach. As long as you are getting an ROI, then it is important to not think about the costs but to think about the new customers you are getting exposure to, and the fact you are promoting your organisation in multiple avenues.
Organisational promotion; a case study
To highlight the above point, we want to demonstrate a case study for an organisation that chose to drop direct mail as a route for organisational promotion. For the American Cancer Society, it proved to be a bad decision.
The acquisition of new donors dropped by more than 11% in a year, donations by new donors dropped by £7m, and a fundraising event raised £16m less than the previous year; seemingly because of the lack of direct mail.
The charity survived and still raised a huge sum of money, but it’s clear to see that you must take more than one avenue when it comes to organisational promotion.
How can bakergoodchild help?
We have helped organisations in many sectors from charities to local authorities and businesses of all shapes and sizes, and are ready to help you too. With some of the longest relationships in the mailing industry, we are able to offer our clients the quickest routes and most cost-effective solutions. If you would like to find out more, please call us on 0800 612 1972 or contact us here.
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