Target Marketing Magazine recently published
its
2013 Media Usage Survey. This annual survey provides great
information on how marketers plan to allocate their direct
marketing budgets and the channels that are getting the most
resources.
The survey revealed that, overall, marketing budgets will remain
unchanged for 2013. Many marketers remain guarded about the economy
and that uncertainty is what is keeping budgets flat. 50% of
marketers said their budgets would stay the same, 25%
increased, and 18% decreased. The rest were unsure.
When describing their biggest factors on their marketing budgets
for this year, survey respondents used words like sales, growth and
funding. These all seem to be different ways of stating an
uncertainty about the marketplace.
Over the next few weeks, we'll look in detail at some of the
survey results and how they affect Pageflex customers and the
client's they serve. To start, let's review some of the data on the
use of email marketing and direct mail.
Marketers report that the ROI for both direct mail and email
marketing are very close. In addition, both BtoB and BtoC marketers
consider email and direct mail the media channels that deliver the
best ROI - whether they are looking to acquire customers or to
retain customers.
But when deciding between direct mail and email, the numbers
reveals how email is surpassing direct mail as the preferred
marketing channel.
In the survey, email consistently rates as the preferred choice
over direct mail. Only 5% of marketers say they will not use
email marketing - 5%! Budgets also indicate the trend
toward more email as 64% of marketers plan to increase their spend
on email marketing and only 1% plan on decreasing it.
Compare that with the budgets for printed direct mail, where the
majority of marketers - 43% - will keep budgets the same. 24% will
increase spending on direct mail, which shows that although it lags
behind email, direct mails still maintains a strong role to fill in
the marketing arsenal.
The survey points to several indicators as to why marketers are
increasingly turning to email.
Of course, producing email is less expensive the printed direct
mail.
Email also wins out with the increasing number of marketers who
are actively using technology in their marketing activities. Email
become part of their marketing automation effort - another huge
area of growth , with 1/3 of responders saying that they are
increasing spending on marketing automation.
In the end, we see that direct mail still performs very well as a
marketing channel. But as email campaigns continue to achieve the
same level of ROI as direct mail, then the slow trend away from
mailing will continue.
Are you seeing that trend in your business?
Will there always be a role for direct mail?
We welcome your input!
More details on the survey, including the demographics of the
business who responded, can be found at the
Target Marketing website.