Email or Direct Mail Marketing: Which is Best for Your Business?

Email marketing or direct mail marketing?  Which option is the better method to reach your customers and earn their business?  Opt-in email is a valuable tool when trying to generate both leads and sales for your business.  Snail mail is as well.  The following guide provides the benefits and downsides for both email and direct mail to better help you make the right choice regarding how to contact clients and grow your business.

Benefits of Email Marketing

• Email is inexpensive.
• Email is time-efficient.
• Email is a great testing medium to gauge client response.
• Downloadable fulfillment pieces can be accessed automatically.

Downsides to Email Marketing

• Because of spam, the “environment” for email is poor.
• Time and space constraints limit the length of email messages.
• Personal creativity is limited by email.
• Companies often have trouble locating solid email lists.

Benefits of Direct Mail Marketing

• The “environment” for direct mail is significantly better than email.
• Direct mail provides more space to get the message across.
• Direct mail allows a merchant to use emotion.
• Direct mail gives businesses the options of sending different types of mail to potential clients.

Downside to Direct Mail Marketing

• Direct mail is often very expensive.  Postage rates increase every year, and printing costs a significant amount of money.  Also, businesses must consider letter-shop and list rental costs, along with creative development.

Weighing the Benefits and Downsides of Both Marketing Methods

There are numerous benefits and downsides to both email marketing and direct mail marketing methods.  Recently, direct mail has experienced a decline — partially attributed to the slow economy and partly due to the success of email marketing.  With the overwhelming amount of spam that arrives through email, and the enormous amount of junk mail sent through direct mail daily, predicting which method of marketing will prevail is virtually impossible.  For additional details on each benefit and downside of both email and direct mail marketing, read more here.