Reaching Your Target Market: Email Marketing vs Direct Mail

What is your number one challenge in marketing your business? According to Salesforce's most recent State of Marketing report, the number one challenge for most marketers is "the ineffective use of tools and technologies."

But how can you know for sure which tool is the right one to reach your potential market?

When it comes to outreach, email marketing, and direct mail are both popular options. So let's compare these two popular marketing approaches to determine the best choice for your business regarding direct mail vs email marketing.

Email Marketing

Email marketing allows businesses to reach large audiences quickly and efficiently, making it one of the most cost-effective options available. Today's email automation tools make it easier than ever to create visually engaging emails.

Pros of Email Marketing:

• Ability to reach a broad audience quickly and easily

• Automation allows for efficient and timely delivery of messages

• Personalization helps build relationships with readers

• Segmenting your audience lets you send a compelling message to each individual

• Lower cost than other forms of advertising

• Easy to track results in real-time

Cons of Email Marketing:

• Spam filters can limit the effectiveness

• A "one size fits all" approach might not be suitable for some audiences

• Unsolicited emails may be considered intrusive or unwelcome by some recipients

Overall, email marketing provides an efficient and cost-effective solution for reaching potential customers. On the downside, spam filters can limit email’s effectiveness, and some recipients may consider unsolicited emails intrusive or unwelcome.

Direct Mail Marketing

Direct mail is any physical communication sent directly to the recipient’s home or office address. This could be anything from a postcard to a flyer, brochure, or catalog.

Pros of Direct Mail Marketing:

• Physical materials allow for a tactile experience

• Direct mail receivers can keep the physical material as a reference

• Target specific audiences with personalized messages

Cons of Direct Mail Marketing:

• Higher cost than digital alternatives

• Slower turnaround time to produce and deliver materials

• More difficult to personalize

• Lower response rate

• Potential environmental impact of paper waste

Direct mail can be expensive and slow compared with email marketing, especially if you are targeting a large audience. Additionally, direct mail pieces often get lost in the shuffle of other people’s mail, so their effectiveness is sometimes limited.

There’s one situation where direct mail might have a distinct advantage over email. If you’re operating a local brick-and-mortar business and want to reach people who live in your immediate neighborhood, you might find it hard to target them with email. In that case, a localized direct mail piece might be an excellent option for you.

Ease of Purchasing

Even at the local level, people are on the verge of doing more business online than offline at this point. By 2024, 54% of revenue will come from digital channels like email–up from 42% in 2022.

Here's why: It's effortless to open an email, click on a link, and autofill an order form to make a purchase. It takes just a few seconds and a few small fingertip movements.

By contrast, purchasing via a piece of direct mail takes effort. First, the customer has to collect the mail, sort the mail, and take enough interest in your advertising to set it aside. Then they must be interested enough to navigate to a website or drive to a location to purchase.

Compelling email copy drives results. For this reason alone, many marketers choose email marketing vs. direct mail as their primary marketing tool. But there are other factors to consider as well.

Cost of Email Marketing vs Direct Mail

When it comes to cost, email marketing is a clear winner.

With the right tools, you can send an email to thousands of people for very little cost (or even for free if your list is small). A robust email platform like beehiiv has built-in tools that make it easy to manage your email list, design your messaging, and track your results. If you're using a free platform, your only cost is your own time–and a paid platform will let you reach thousands of people as often as you wish for just one low monthly fee.

On the other hand, direct mail requires design, printing, postage fees, and labor to handle the physical pieces. These costs could quickly add up if you’re targeting large audiences. For example, mailing just 1,000 postcards can cost anywhere from $500 to $2,000. So direct mail marketing vs email marketing is definitely a more expensive and time-consuming option.

Targeting & Personalization

Email marketing platforms can create highly targeted and personalized communications that are difficult to achieve using direct mail.

With email marketing, marketers can target specific groups within an audience, known as segments, to ensure the right message reaches the right people.

Additionally, email marketing is easier to personalize than direct mail. Marketers can leverage data, such as first names and past purchase history, to create highly customized messages that capture readers' attention.

Direct mail can also be segmented and personalized, but it requires higher printing costs and labor to ensure the right pieces reach the right individual. Also, when your direct mail is segmented or personalized, you forfeit bulk rate discounts on postage.

Open & Click-Through Rates

Email open and click-through rates are often much higher than those of direct mail pieces, making it an attractive option for marketers looking to maximize their return on investment (ROI).

According to Radicati Group, the average open rate for emails sent in 2017 was 22.86%, while the average click-through rate was 3.71%. On the other hand, direct mail pieces have an average response rate of only 2%.

It’s also easier to track results when using email marketing vs. direct mail.

Timeliness

Email marketing is a faster and more reliable method of communication than direct mail because you can send your messages instantly with the click of a button.

Direct mail, on the other hand, takes much longer to design, create, and send to its destination. Therefore, email marketing is the best choice for time-sensitive promos or announcements that need to be seen immediately.

Email Marketing vs Direct Mail: Essential Takeaways

• Email marketing is an efficient and cost-effective way to reach large audiences quickly and efficiently.

• Leveraging automation tools like beehiiv enables marketers to create, target, and send visually appealing emails in no time with minimal effort.

• Email marketing allows for highly targeted and personalized communications that are difficult to achieve using direct mail.

• Email marketing is a faster and more reliable method of communication than direct mail because it can be sent instantly with the click of a button.

Overcoming Challenges in Email Marketing

Earlier, we listed the cons of email marketing, including spam filtering, a 'one size fits all' approach, and people's resistance to receiving unsolicited emails. However, you can overcome each of these challenges with careful planning and execution.

You can get around spam filters through the judicious use of keywords, images, and content that is varied enough to stay ahead of the algorithms used by spam filtering services.

You can also avoid the 'one size fits all' approach by using customer segments, interests, and needs to personalize the message for maximum effectiveness.

Finally, resistance to unsolicited emails is a challenge that you can address through an effective opt-in policy and stellar subject lines. Also, if you provide interesting and engaging content every time you send out a communication, your audience will look forward to receiving your messages.

Email Marketing vs Direct Mail: Conclusions

When it comes down to email marketing vs direct mail, both have their pros and cons.

However, unless you’re a local brick-and-mortar business targeting your neighborhood, email marketing is undoubtedly your best option. By leveraging automation tools like beehiiv, marketers can create visually appealing emails in no time and target specific groups within their audience for maximum effectiveness.

Plus, email open and click-through rates are much higher than direct mail pieces, making it an attractive option for those looking to maximize ROI.

Ultimately, when choosing the right marketing channel for your business, email marketing is a modern improvement over direct mail that is hard to beat.

Check out the world-class tools the beehiiv platform provides to help you reach your email marketing goals.