Study: Fifty percent of consumers prefer direct mail to email

Fifty percent of U.S. consumers prefer direct mail to email, according to a study released by marketing services firm Epsilon on Dec. 1. The study also found that one-quarter of all U.S. consumers said they found direct mail to be “more trustworthy” than email.

Of the 2,226 U.S. consumers surveyed for the third Consumer Channel Preference Study, 60% said they enjoy checking their physical mailboxes, highlighting what the study refers to as an “emotional connection” to postal mail.

Over-reliance on email messaging may actually hurt marketers, according to the study, which found the perception that reading email is faster than reading postal mail declined among U.S. email account holders from 47% in 2010 to 45% this year.

Warren Storey, VP of product marketing and insight at ICOM, a division of Epsilon Targeting, said the findings are not all that unexpected when “you know the data and consumer trends.”
“It's just ‘surprising' because everything you hear in the media is basically counter to what the consumers are actually telling us, which is that direct mail is still the preferred channel,” Storey said.

While Groupon and LinkedIn, for example, are grabbing high-profile media attention by generating “giant” initial public offerings, “direct mail is one of those mediums that is always quietly there in the background doing a great job,” Storey said. The most ideal way to reach consumers, according to the report, is to use a combination of media to build consumer trust, including media that some marketers might consider to be “old school,” like direct mail, TV and newspapers, said Storey.

“There is definitely a growing trend that email inboxes are getting more and more full,” Storey said.

“Over the last three years, we've seen an increase of the percentage of consumers saying, yeah, they like getting email, but they get far too many. In the U.S., 75% of consumers say they get more email than they can read.”

Ultimately, the overarching theme of the study, according to Storey, is that marketers should think twice before they disregard direct mail.

“It's not sexy. It's not terribly innovative,” he said. “But it works.”

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Strategic Marketing, Inc. Named Diamond Award Winner in the 2009 Dealers’ Choice Awards

Strategic Marketing, Inc. is proud to announce it has been named the recipient of 2 Diamond Awards in the Best Direct Marketing Company category and the Best Sub-Prime Lead Generation category of the Auto Dealer Monthly 2009 Dealers’ Choice Awards.

“It takes outstanding products and services, support and value to earn one of these awards,” said Harlene Doane, editor of Auto Dealer Monthly. “Strategic Marketing, Inc. should be very proud to be recognized by the dealers they serve in this manner.

“We are extremely proud and honored to receive such outstanding awards, especially in this difficult automotive climate. We worked really hard this last year with developing outstanding products and this is testament to our staff,” said Todd Strause, President of Strategic Marketing, Inc.

The Award Process

This is the fifth year Auto Dealer Monthly has recognized the most highly regarded vendors, suppliers and finance companies in the retail automotive industry, as voted on by dealers and dealership personnel. The survey provided dealers and their employees the ability to offer their collective selection of the top providers to the retail auto industry.

Overall, 55 awards were given out to 45 companies, all chosen by dealers and dealership personnel. In 20 distinctive categories of products and services, nearly 15,000 votes were cast. Ratings were gathered on the performance of the product or service, as well as the customer support and service provided, and the overall value compared to cost to the dealership. The complete list of winners, as well as any provider or finance company that rated higher than the group average score in any category can be found at www.AutoDealerMonthly.com/2009DCA_winners.pdf. The entire feature on the 2009 Dealers’ Choice Awards is in the April 2009 issue of Auto Dealer Monthly magazine, which can be found here: http://autodealermonthly.epubxpress.com/?site=3.

About

Strategic Marketing, Inc. is based in Louisville, Ky and was formed in 1995 to provide innovative direct marketing and lead generation programs to franchise and independent automotive dealers across the United States. For additional information about Strategic Marketing, Inc., please contact Todd Strause at 1-800-799-8633, or write to: info@StrategicMarketing. com. You can also visit our website at: www.StrategicMarketing.com.

About Auto Dealer Monthly, LLC

Auto Dealer Monthly is the day-to-day resource for automotive dealerships of all sizes. It is know for offering business solutions to dealers by providing information necessary to make wise decisions regarding products, services or process changes in daily operations. Auto Dealer Monthly is also the publisher of Auto Dealer Monthly magazine and Special Finance Insider magazine and the creator of AutoDealerPeople.com.