Public sees direct mail in fonder light, survey finds

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.printweek.com/print-week/new ... rvey-finds" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



Public perception of direct mail is improving, with almost half of consumers seeing it as good business communication, according to a recent survey.
http://www.printweek.com/IMG/552/31552/directmaildoor20drops201307300109528374418-385x248.jpg?1384267280Recent research found more people preferred direct mail to other forms of marketing communication

Data specialist Wilmington Millennium questioned 2,000 consumers in December and found 48% thought it is a good way for businesses to connect with them, a rise of 7% since a similar survey in 2014.

The research also found 44% of consumers ranked direct mail (DM) and door drops as their favourite form of direct marketing, against 42% who preferred email. Website pop-up advertisements received the lowest seal of approval, with only 2.7% of those surveyed preferring them.

Karen Pritchard, product director of Wilmington Millennium company Mortascreen, which provides deceased data files used for DM suppression, said the increase in positive vibes for DM was not a surprise.

“We’re pleased by the outcome. There has been a great deal of effort put in to responsible direct mail over the past few years, targeted and directed to the right people, so its good to see that effort is now paying off.

“Customers are approaching direct mail communications far more readily than they were in the past. There was a point when there was far too much untargeted mail being sent out. When a correctly addressed and targeted piece of DM comes through the door, they are not seeing that as intrusive in the same way as a pop-up for example. They are annoying, whereas mail you can digest at your own pace.”

The results come despite a slew of bad press for DM last year following the death of poppy seller Olive Cooke.

Cooke was said to have killed herself after being inundated with thousands of letters and phone calls from charities, although her family has since said charities were not responsible for her death.

A government-commissioned review led by Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, made a series of recommendations, including a service where people can opt out of charity communications.

Pritchard said that charities had been forced to review their communication policies, reducing the number of wrongly addressed mailings and sending more relevant offers through tighter targeting.

“That can be no bad thing,” she said. “The outcome will be that there will be more responsibility and people will become more comfortable again providing that the good practices are adhered to.

“I don’t think it has damaged DM in the long term. Improvement will just give customers a better perception of the mail that they are receiving,” Pritchard said.

Charities were not considered to be the worst sector for sending irrelevant mail. That fell to financial services companies. 30% of the surveyed saw them as the worst, compared to 28% for charities. Utilities were the third most complained about companies (24%) and estate agents and local councils also came under fire.

The travel (6%) and retail (11%) sectors respectively have the best reputation among consumers in terms of effective use of DM as a marketing channel.

Pritchard said travel companies did not necessarily have better data, they were just more specific in the mailings they send out.

She added that DM print volumes would never return to the heady days of the 1980s or 1990s but 2015 saw mail volumes and spend rise and this was expected to continue on the same trajectory through 2016.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.travolution.co.uk/articles/2 ... perts.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Amid this January’s barrage of TV and online travel advertising, direct-mail is enjoying a renaissance, according to industry experts.

Panellists at last week’s Cim Travel Group Question Time said the battle today was as much for ‘share of doormat’ as ‘share of voice’ online and on other media.

Richard Bowden-Doyle, Neilson executive chairman, said: “We are starting to see significant divergence in the effectiveness of old-fashioned direct marketing and e-marketing.

“I know one very well-known travel business whose objective is ‘share of doormat’.”

Julia Lo Bue-Said, Advantage managing director, agreed, saying the consortium invests in direct marketing for agency members.

“We use our customer data to drive that. We do see increased conversions. It absolutely does work,” she said.

Tim Williamson, Responsible Travel’s marketing and content director, said targeted marketing was not just the domain of the big boys. The former Tui customer director said the infrequent nature of holiday-booking was a challenge and he slammed travel for filling people’s inboxes with a “wall of generic spam”, which he summarised as “all shite”.

Asked for his opinion on turn-of-year TV campaigns, particularly the high number from online firms, Williamson said: “It’s good to see online brands recognise they need an offline audience.”

But he added: “I’m always slightly embarrassed by travel ads.”

He picked out Thomas Cook’s ‘dancing boy’ ad for its failure to ram home its brand message.

Williamson said travel ads are often “beautiful films with a logo stuck on the end”, adding: “I would not say that’s a good advert.”

Bue-Said said the message was important but campaigns such as Cook’s did create a lot of noise and excitement about holidays.

[DB1100]

People are so pleased when they get their virginmedia stuff they often come rushing out their doors to thank me for it,and it gladens my heart when I see the how pleased council house tenants are when they get their double glazing adverts.

[deltaforce]

Not exactly an independent survey. More like a skewed interpretation from a company that earns a living from the direct marketing industry.

[wannabeek]

I can believe these stats to be accurate. It's very llittle hassle to stick the D2Ds we deliver in the bin if they're of no interest or to one side if they are.

I find it a massively higher hassle to be contacted by telesales calls, email popups or door-knockers, even telly and radio adverts are more of an irritating intrusion to me than d2ds. If I need to be advertised to, I'd rather have a d2d through the letter box than any other form of communication I think.

Not that its easier to ignore though, I would say. Opposite in fact , thinking about it. I notice what the local superstore has on offer via their d2d but their radio ad is just background noise to me.

[bustedflush]

I imagine that there is huge conversion on:

Virgin junk to all the houses with SKY dishes.
Domino's Pizza flyers to a hundred warden-assisted octogenarians.
Hillary's Blinds to council houses.
ditto glazing
ditto solar panels.
ditto private health plans
F*rm F*cking Foods to villages miles form a store.

[Lounge Lizard]

Not exactly an independent survey. More like a skewed interpretation from a company that earns a living from the direct marketing industry.

Exactly, and "found 48% thought it is a good way for businesses to connect with them" doesn't mean that 48% of households want businesses to connect with them with such unaddressed mail.

[Keenzy]

I think I'll conduct my own survey tomorrow - haven't met one customer with a positive reaction to it so far. Wish i'd a quid for every "more junk?" comment.

[Lounge Lizard]

I think I'll conduct my own survey tomorrow - haven't met one customer with a positive reaction to it so far. Wish i'd a quid for every "more junk?" comment.

I've already done my survey.
Approximately 240,000 Door To Door leaflets delivered over several years and once one person asked for an extra one as it included a voucher for a discount to a Game Fair so that's a satisfaction rating of about 0.0004%