Direct Mail vs. Email

posted Friday, January 15, 2010; updated Thursday April 15, 2010

The Environment

Going Green; a term used to tell people you are acting in an environmentally responsible way. It's a huge buzzword and the printing industry isn't ignoring it. In fact, a recent Google search for the term "green printing" yielded 11,900,000 results! Many advertisers and other businesses are trying to find ways to cut costs in addition to 'going green.'

One way businesses are trying to accomplish this is by eliminating direct mail as a means for communicating with prospective customers, and using email instead. At first glance this looks like a great idea. No paper or ink used, there is very little cost associated with emailing; what could be better?

Energy Consumption

On closer inspection, however, we find that direct mail does not negatively impact the environment the way that some believe it does. Consider this: less than 10% of power used in the United States is generated from renewable resources. However, in the pulp and paper industry 60% of consumed energy is from renewable sources¹.

Further comparison reveals that the energy consumed to produce one year's worth of paper for the average person (500 kilowatt-hours of electricity for 440 pounds) is the same amount of energy needed to power one computer for 5 months¹.

In addition, in 2006 U.S. Data Centers (facilities that house computer systems; sometimes referred to as server farms) used 60 billion kilowatt hours of energy. This is approximately the same amount of energy used by nearly 560,000 homes in one year. Don Carli of the Institute for Sustainable Communication says this about the energy consumption of our digital media devices:

"Computers, cellular networks and data centers are connected to the destruction of over 600 square miles of forest in the U.S. because of their ravenous consumption of electricity. Greenpeace estimates that by 2020 data centers will demand more electricity than is currently demanded by France, Brazil, Canada, and Germany combined."

Forestry & Sustainability

One major complaint against printed media is that it uses trees. Many people are concerned that print is responsible for deforestation. However, the paper and print industry has made great strides to become more sustainable in the harvesting of trees.

Approximately 4 million new trees are planted by America's forestry and paper industries every day; three trees are planted for every one that is harvested. Because of this there are more forests in the U.S. now than there were 50 years ago².

The Bottom Line

The benefits of direct mail continue beyond the environmental aspect. Consider these statistics:

• According to mailmovesamerica.org, "more than 8 in 10 households read or scan their advertising mail."
• The Rochester Institute of Technology Printing Industry Center released a study showing that 67% of respondents actually like getting direct mail from companies they do business with³.
• According to the Print Council 42% of sales are generated by paper catalogs and just 26% by websites.
• A 2008 study by the Newspaper Association of America found that 78% of newspaper readers use the newspaper inserts to plan their shopping³

What Your Customers Want

Recently the Wall Street Journal published an article describing how many businesses actually saw a drop in sales, 25% in the case of Per Annum, Inc., a provider of corporate gift items, when they switched to online-only marketing. Other companies, like wholesale insurance broker ExecutivePerils in Los Angeles, had customers calling to find out why they weren't receiving anymore of the company's direct mailings! These customers enjoy receiving reminders and timely, relevant information in their snail mail box⁴.

Email Marketing Roulette

Let's face it; commercial email tends to be viewed as SPAM, even if it is CAN-SPAM compliant. SPAM is in the eye of the beholder and if the recipient of your email doesn't remember signing up to be on your mailing list, doesn't like the content of your email, hasn't added your email address to their safe list, or is just having a bad day, they will most likely delete the email or send it straight to their Junk Mail folder; or worse, they might just hit the "Report as SPAM" button, which can land your company on a black list and none of your emails will get through to anyone using their ISP (AOL, Yahoo!, Gmail, etc.).

Integrated Marketing Solutions

With everything, however, moderation is key and experts say the best way to increase your ROI and drive sales is to combine direct mail and online marketing methods. For example, you can send a direct mail piece with a PURL (Personalized URL) that directs the viewer to their very own personal version of your website. Or, you can put an advertisement on national television and send a corresponding direct mail piece that puts the information in front of the viewer again and again.

Direct mail is produced with environmentally sustainable practices, can see a higher ROI than email marketing alone, and to your customers receiving it can be less annoying than receiving email. Before completely cutting out direct mail, try combining the forces of direct mail and email. We all know that repetition is key and using an integreted solution can drive more sales, increase your ROI, and help you reduce both the cost and environmental impact of your marketing campaigns.

Resources

1. The Printing Industry of Minnesota, Inc.
2. Mail Moves America
3. "Why Print? The Top Ten Ways Print Helps You Prosper" from The Print Council
4. "Firms Hold Fast to Snail Mail Marketing" by Teri Evans, Wall Street Journal
5. "Going Paperless - Not as Green as You Think" by Don Carli of the Institute for Sustainable Communication, GreenBiz.com

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