Old-fashioned direct mail looks pretty dowdy these days. Expensive. Slow. Such hard work to get it right, especially the database.

In fact, direct mail is a very cheap and effective form of communication with qualified prospects. (It's an expensive prospecting or cold-call tool.)

Perhaps it's not surprising then that direct contact of some kind is an increasingly essential step in many business models. Often it's where high customer acquisition costs (eg, via advertising) are justified by an ongoing, mundane customer contact and sales strategy.

Direct mail acquires some glamour when it's dressed up as direct email or e-newsletters, but whatever it's clothing some important basic principles apply:

• Direct communication has the greatest impact when it's tailored to known customer interests.
• Direct communication is the only rigorously testable form of promotion; you can know exactly what you got for your money and learn from your mistakes. You can't say that about advertising.
• The rules of direct mail (which have been tested and proven by real research over decades) apply totally to direct email and e-newsletters.
• Related to this, most of the proven rules of direct response advertising are totally applicable to enewsletters and to websites.

If you want to talk more directly with your customers, talk with Glide Strategic.

A PS about the popularity of direct mail.

Why isn't direct mail used more? Most big companies use advertising agencies to advise on and implement their promotions. Suppose they tell their agency they have $100,000 for a campaign. The agency considers a series of press ads. Quick and easy, they charge for the artwork and get 10% to 25% commission on the media space. But maybe direct mail would work better? They can still charge for the artwork, but organising direct mail is a lot of work and Australia Post does not pay commissions on mail. So the agency can recommend advertising and pick up say $30,000 gross on the campaign or do much more work for a $10,000 gross on a direct mail campaign. Will their advice be unbiased? Or is this why advertising agencies generally only recommend direct mail when there is budget left over after advertising?