Long before people LOLed or IMed one another, mail was the
standard way to correspond. While those
days may be in the past, mail is still a viable and important tradition for
businesses and organizations.
What it is: Direct mail
How it got started: The first U.S. pamphlet was reportedly
published by William Penn in 1681. Aaron
Montgomery Ward started his catalog business nearly 200 years later, in
1872. It was in 1835, however, that the
first direct mail campaign, according to the National Postal
Museum, was created. Devised by the American Anti-Slavery Society,
the campaign contained anti-slavery newspapers and printed materials and was
targeted to southern religious and civic leaders, whose names were selected from
newspapers, city directories, and other publically-available lists.
Why it still works: The advantages of mailing someone
a printed letter, catalog, brochure, or package are just as relevant--if not
more so--today as they were in the 1800s. Despite our growing and evolving
technology, just about everyone has a permanent address, a place they call
home. You can’t say the same about
landline phones or mobile phones or internet access or television sets.
Furthermore, direct mail offers some of the most trackable
testing. It can be targeted and
personalized. It can change its
appearance and size and shape to offer a variety of looks and achieve a variety
a goals, a flexibility that other forms of marketing don’t have. Direct mail is also the most effective way to
reach existing customers.
And although direct mail has earned the unflattering
nickname “junk mail,” it is still perceived as being less intrusive than our
next subject…telemarketing.
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