The Future of Direct Mail

Some marketing pundits claim that direct mail (the "junk" mail you get in your mail box) is dying, mostly because e-mail marketing is becoming so popular.

We at Sir Speedy love all kinds of marketing, and many of you know that we use direct mail AND e-mail marketing frequently, plus TV and the Internet.

But a recent study shows that direct mail is still one of the best ways to get your message to prospects. The study by the U.S. Postal Service of 1,500 households shows that mail offers a rare opportunity for a marketer to capture the undivided attention of consumers.

InnoMedia conducted more than 35 hours of interviews to determine how consumers engage with their mail and how businesses can reach consumers in a compelling and effective way. Here are some of the key findings from the study:

Mail gets marketing messages immediately into the hands of consumers who are eager to see what's in their mail.

• 98 percent of consumers bring in their mail the day it is delivered, and of these, 72 percent bring it in as soon as possible;
• 77 percent of consumers sort through their mail immediately.

Mail boasts a loyal readership and consumers spend a significant amount of time each day with their mail.

• Consumers spend an average of 30 minutes reading their mail on any occasion.

Mail is useful and consumers are more likely to read it if it helps them perform one of these three household job functions:

• Browsing for new purchases
• Managing the home
• Overseeing finances

Mail evokes emotion among consumers

• 67 percent feel mail is more personal than the Internet;
• 56 percent say receiving mail is a real pleasure;
• 55 percent look forward to discovering the mail they receive.

Mail and the Internet are complementary marketing mediums;

• Consumers browse mail catalogs to assist with online shopping;
• Consumers who receive a company's mail catalog account for 22 percent of the company's web site traffic and 37 percent of the company's e-commerce dollars.

I love this last point. Direct mail isn't neccesarily fighting against e-mail marketing and the Internet. They both can be used in an overall marketing strategy.

Cinderella Man

Here's a recommendation to go see Cinderella Man, the true story of James J. Braddock ... a great boxer, but a greater husband and father.

What a role model for men!

There's a lot of boxing, but it never overshadows or gets in the way of the real story of Braddock's life. The movie got off to a slower start at the box office than expected, so AMC theaters is "guaranteeing" it, saying it'll refund your money if you don't like it. As we were walking out of the theater Sunday night, Anne said, "I guess we won't be asking for our money back."

A few sidenotes:

• Something you don't see in the movie: Braddock later enlisted to fight in World War II. You would think a 40-year-old man with a family would have shied away from that. Different era, different men.
• One of the main characters is Max Baer, the heaveyweight champ of the world in the early 1930s. The movie portrays him inaccurately as an uncaring bully who killed two men in the ring. First, he killed only one man, but grieved over that his entire life and paid for college educations for the boxer's children.
• Baer went on to be a fairly famous actor who even had an affair with Jean Harlow. But maybe Baer's greatest contribution to American culture was his son, Max Baer Jr., who played Jethro on The Beverly Hillbillies for nine seasons! I bet Jethro would have been a pretty good boxer, too.