Direct Mail may fall 10% this year
The US Direct Marketing Association originally predicted that direct mail volume would only fall 1% this year, but the organisation has revised that to as much as 10%, reports Brandweek. The article continues:
“This was mainly driven by the combination of a number of factors including the consumer credit crisis, the mortgage crisis, and the overall economic crisis, as well as marketers exploring new ways of integrating across different channels,” said Ramesh Lakshmi-Ratan, the DMA’s executive vice president and chief operating officer.
One of the biggest victims of the reduction of direct mail volume has been the USPS. For the quarter that ended 30 June, the USPS lost $2.4bn. As a result, the federal agency has instituted cost-saving measures like limiting workers’ hours and is trying to convince Congress to follow other countries’ leads and deliver five days a week instead of six.
USPS rep Yvonne Yoerger said that the slackened volume of direct mail has been a factor, but so has a longer-term trend of “electronic diversion”—the use of digital media like e-mail and electronic bill payment instead of paper letters. “That’s an ongoing trend that we’ve been aware of,” she said. “Some of the mail volume will not come back even after the economy recovers.”
The direct mail industry is grappling with the same issues. A recent DMA survey showed a distinct trend towards digital media at the expense of direct mail, Lakshmi-Ratan said. 81% of respondents expect to increase their use of e-mail for marketing purposes. Other digital media like online video, search engine marketing and mobile also scored high. “As the attractive, popular, low-cost alternatives, the future will see all these channels grow further and give way to even more exciting possibilities like viral marketing and trigger marketing,” said Lakshmi-Ratan.
The USPS doesn’t break out direct mail volume, but Yoerger said standard mail accounts for 83% of advertising mail. Standard mail revenues fell $849m or 17.7% in the last quarter as volume fell 4.4bn pieces or 18.8% compared to the same period in 2008.
