There is no doubt regarding the importance of digital marketing in today’s digital marketplace. Businesses not only have to develop a strong brand to compete, but they also need to market themselves on numerous social media platforms and put time and effort into website design and management. Direct mail vs email has become an interesting and relevant debate in the marketing industry. Just as e-commerce has left many brick-and-mortar shops struggling to keep up, the success of email marketing has caused many to question if there is even a place for direct mail in current marketing strategies.
As e-commerce exploded over the last 10 years, so too has email communication between companies and their consumers. People sign up to receive emails and are kept abreast of sales, promotions, coupons, and special member offers. Email is a great way for businesses to keep refreshing their brand in the minds of consumers while maintaining that close connection crucial to cementing consumer-relationships and ROI. Email is also an environmentally-friendly way to reduce our use of paper, and many consumers feel good about that and embrace the philosophy of limiting their paper trail.
What the prevalence of email in marketing has led to is many people complaining about the bombardment of these emails. Let’s face it, email is a cheap way to communicate. Companies are more able to communicate with their customers and promote their brand, but many people find it too much and end up relying on that ‘unsubscribe’ button at the end of the email to help declutter their inboxes.