Consumer Mailing Lists: The Evolution Of Direct Mailing

By Author: Tyler Matthews
Total Articles: 3764
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The concept of using mail to attract the attention of potential consumers is not new. In fact, it is one of the oldest marketing tactics that companies and entrepreneurs employ to achieve public awareness, and to turn this awareness into action. This procedure or tactic is called direct mailing. As the name suggests, this strategy would require one to send marketing materials (or mailers) to a number of people, sent directly to their home addresses. This would ensure that the people will instantly see the marketing material. However, direct mailing is no longer as useful as it is today. Hence, many entrepreneurs rely on consumer mailing lists. Many people are not too eager to try consumer mailing lists. However, comparing the benefits of direct mailing to the advantages of consumer mail lists, it is easy to see which of the following is the marketing tool of choice.

For one, direct mailing requires more effort compared to using consumer mail lists. With direct mailing, the entrepreneur is required to create mailers (the marketing materials to be sent), which cost a considerable amount of money. Of course, these mailers ...
... need to be sent through snail mail, which also cost a lot especially if the number of mailers is considerably plenty. On the other hand, when using consumer email lists, all one has to do is buy the lists from providers and create the promotional material digitally, since these materials are sent online. Obviously, the email marketing effort is cheaper compared to the direct mailing tactics.

The issue of attention also comes into mind. A lot of people who prefer direct mailing against consumer email lists say direct mail tends to grab the attention of potential consumers more, since mailers are tangible. However, while tangible, the effort does not guarantee that people will indeed read the material. Mailers are often considered as junk mail. And junk mail is seldom read, unless the person who received the mail is interested with the service or the product promoted. Meanwhile, it is not true not using a consumer mailing list for email marketing would not attract attention. If the consumer email list provider is reliable, the contacts contained in the lists are relevant; meaning, all of them are interested in the product.