Research recently published by Marketscan confirms the view that I have been suggesting for some time – that direct mail is on the way back after its decline a couple of years ago.

60% of respondents to their survey said they are using direct mail in isolation or as part of an integrated campaign.

More of a surprise is that 57% of respondents using telemarketing either on its own are as part of an integrated programme.  I find that a surprise unless the majority of those involved are using telephone work as part of the research (getting the right person’s name, email address etc).

Email was only used by 33% of respondents.

I would suspect the latter low figure comes from two problems: one being the fact that in most areas it is now necessary to go out and reserach one’s own lists – the email lists that can be bought off the shelf are really quite poor.  (We are just doing an experiment with one such list and I’ll report our findings shortly).

The other is that writing good email copy is not common sense or intuitive.  It can be done, but it is not that easy.

If you would like to talk about the mix, the lists, the creative or the price of a cup of tea in Trafalgar Square do give me a call.  I always like a chat.

Tony Attwood

01536 399 000