subject: Using Direct Mail To Increase Revenue For Your Enterprise [print this page] Every product or service requires marketing, and this is a well established fact. Marketing a product of service informs the customer or client the existence of the product or service and what it has to offer. The information flow has to take place via a particular medium. Marketing is the name of this medium on which the information flows from the business people to the customer base. The medium adopted could be a direct method or an indirect method. A time tested direct means that has stood its ground is using direct mail to market your business. The advantages accrued by using direct mail for marketing your business are many.
As with every other aspect in real life it is not only all green the pastures of direct marketing. This process too has its own set of disadvantages and they should also be borne in mind while deciding on this method of marketing.
For the business world however, the process of direct marketing has not been a new phenomenon. Hired people were used to distribute paper pamphlets to people passing by on the street. Information about the business product or service would be printed on these pamphlets.
The primary advantage that is gained by direct contact with the customer is the increased probability of the client turning into a customer. As the person is treated individually it gives an elated experience to the individual leading to the desire of the individual to buy or use the particular product or service.
There are once again different methods of executing a direct contact and marketing thereof. The normal postal mail system has been the one most expensively used since times for this purpose. Business house would write about their product or service and post it to the addresses of their selected customer base. The postal charges in case of mass mailing were a reduced rate and this helped in the marketing technique using this method.
What used to appeal to the recipient used to be the design and content of the mail. These two factors played an important role and as yet play an important role in appealing to the recipient and converting them into customers.
The added advantage with high probability of attracting customers was the direct feedback channel that got established with direct cont or marketing. The business house could better the product or service being offered due this direct feedback report that they receive from the customers. Probability of information being juggled due to its different stages of percolation is obviated.
Computers and electronic gadgets brought in a change in the method of mailing system. From postal mail called snail mail now it changed to email and short messaging systems using mobile gadgets. Direct marketing using mails also changed tack and took the form of email and sms.
The process and effect though remained near similar to the postal service related mail system of direct marketing. Bulk mailing followed in the previous regime now turned into bulk emailing. The cost also was drastically cut down as email required no such rigorous physical labour as postal mail delivery had.
However there are disadvantages of using direct mail for marketing your business. One of them and the most commonly faced being the loss of the mail at the recipient end due to unwanted or unnoticeable effect of the mail. Terms like spam and the likes which mean unwanted mail or emails hounding users that are probable customers have become common with the unwieldy nature of the internet and email. There is a need therefore to take help of professionals who would be able to create appealing mails that would attract the attention of the recipient if one wished to turn the recipient into a customer.
