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.

Strategic Marketing, Inc. develops new platform to purchase sub-prime Internet Leads at a wholesale level!

Strategic Marketing, Inc. of Louisville, KY announced today that it has developed a new system for automotive dealers to purchase and acquire sub-prime automotive leads. This system gives automotive dealers the power to determine the price they want to pay for sub-prime internet leads and to place orders with no minimums.

Strategic Marketing, Inc. of Louisville, KY announced today that it has developed a new system for automotive dealers to purchase and acquire sub-prime automotive leads. This system gives automotive dealers the power to determine the price they want to pay for sub-prime internet leads and to place orders with no minimums.

Since it’s inception in 1995, Strategic Marketing, Inc. has developed a fully integrated set of award-winning programs and services which have pushed their dealer clients to the leading edge of the industry, enabling them to sell more vehicles than their competition and reach new levels of success.

Todd M. Strause, President and CEO, said “It’s an exciting time for our clients!” “They have asked for a new way of purchasing automotive sub-prime internet leads, so we listened and developed a tool called “AuctionLink powered by Leadflow” to give them the control they want to have in this space. There are no minimum orders, there are no minimum prices, and they control where they purchase leads.” “The exciting part is the dealers determine their purchase price based on market research we provide them, which can save them thousands of dollars a month!”

“We pride ourselves on providing our dealers with the best available technology for all aspects of their business,” said Todd M. Strause, “we do that by developing in-house technology which challenges the existing protocol in the industry.”

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.

Payless Car Sales Partners with Strategic Marketing, Inc. for Leads

Payless Car Sales, Inc. announced today that it has partnered with Strategic Marketing, Inc. of Louisville, KY for the development and implementation of its new business development center (BDC) and used car marketing and lead generation programs.

Since it’s inception in 1995, Strategic Marketing, Inc. has developed a fully integrated set of award winning programs and services which have pushed their dealer clients to the leading edge of the industry, enabling them to out sell their competition and reach new levels of success. Todd Strause, President and CEO, said “It’s an exciting partnership and we look forward to providing some great ideas and programs to Payless Car Sales Dealer Base.

“We pride ourselves on providing our dealers with the best available technology for all aspects of their business,” said Mike Harley, Payless president and COO, “we do that by partnering with companies like Strategic Marketing, who have the drive, ability and vision to stay ahead of the pack. We believe our new partnership with Strategic Marketing will help our dealers sell more vehicles, and that,” added Harley, “is what the Payless brand is all about.”

The Payless Car Sales Franchise System is designed to help qualified independent used car dealers sell more cars. Though affiliation with its nationally recognized and trusted brand, Payless provides “preferred vendor” relationships with floor plan providers, retail lenders, F&I product and other industry suppliers; unique access to off rental inventories; on-going consulting from a professional staff and a strongly optimized, highly visible and nationwide lead generating website.

Payless Car Sales, Inc. was initially formulated to provide a sales platform for disposing of rental vehicles for its sister company Payless Car Rental. It became a separate entity in February 2002 and has now grown to over 50 locations in 16 states and Puerto Rico. To see their inventory of quality, pre-owned vehicles nearest you, visit: www.PaylessCarSales.com.

Independent Used Vehicle Dealers seeking to grow their sales should contact: James Formanek, VP Sales at 813-380-4999, or write to: JFormanek@PaylessCarSales.com. For additional information about the Payless Car Sales franchise opportunity please take a moment to visit: www.PaylessFranchise.com.

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 John Lesch at 800-799-8633, or write to: john@strategicmarketing.com. You can also visit our website at: www.strategicmarketing.com .