Thanks, “Do Not Call” List!
Tuesday, 18 October 2011 00:00
By Heidi Tolliver-Nigro
Need another reason to invest indirect mail? According to the Federal Trade commission, more than 72% ofAmericans are on the "do not call" registry. That means, on an unsolicited basis, more than 200 million of our 300 million U. S. population are not contactable by phone unless you already have a relationship with them.
That creates a challenge for prospecting. If you can't call, how do you reach them? You can use pull marketing online. You can use notoriously unreliable email lists. Or you can use mail.
I don't know about you, but my mailbox is a lot emptier these days. When I receive direct mail, I'm more likely to give it a second look than I used to be. Those marketers can say, "Thanks, do not call list!"
How about another standby - television? People still watch a lot of TV, right? They do, but that doesn't always do marketers a lot of good. According to Neilsen, 40% of smartphone owners and 42%of tablet owners are splitting their attention between television andtheir iPads on a daily basis. Not exactly an engaged audience. Even if they don't own an iPad, according to TheGuardian, 86% of people skip television ads anyway.
You know what people don't skip? Trips to the mailbox. I don't know what it is, but even though it is likely to contain nothing but bills and solicitations, there is something exciting about mail. It's tangible. It can contain the unexpected. No matter what's in your mail (or not), there is something about taking out a handful of letters and catalogs thatis just a little bit exciting. That's why the daily trip to the mailbox is sacrosanct. It's why direct mail works.
Our lives may be dictated by the unrelenting demands of cellphones, iPads, and Facebook, but direct mail still has a very important place in the marketing mix. In the frenzy of our "on all the time," multi-tasking world, sometimes the simplest approaches can be the most effective. For many marketers, that still means using the mailbox.
Heidi Tolliver-Nigro is an industry analyst specializing in digital, 1:1, personalized URLs, QR codes, and other marketing technologies as they apply to print. You can contact her at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
