E-mail and web sites can help companies gain
superior results from their direct mailings, writes
David Murphy.

When companies first started using e-mail as a marketing
tool, some direct marketers saw it as a threat to the
traditional way of doing things. But today, many companies
recognise that used together, DM and e-mail are worth much
more together than individually.

"Most clients appreciate the value of using e-mail and DM
together" says David Bulman, chief technology officer,
Europe, at DM agency Wunderman.

"It's very rare now that we send out a piece of DM that doesn't
have some sort of e-mail element."

In its work for the launch of the new Jaguar X-type,
Wunderman used an initial direct mail campaign based around
a detailed questionnaire to narrow down a target audience
and get those interested to supply more information about
themselves, including their e-mail address for use in an
e-mail campaign. Bulman says this is typical of the way
in which offline DM and online e-mail marketing are often
used in tandem.

Chris Seth, media director at Proximity London, points out
that e-mail has some obvious advantages over DM. These
include the cost, the speed with which a campaign can be
tested, refined and rolled out, and the ability it offers
respondents to easily find out more information.

"If you're trying to put across an information-heavy
proposition, e-mail can be a lot more effective if
you use it to direct consumers to a web site with all
the information you want to get across," he says.

But DM also scores over e-mail in a number of ways too,
says Seth. Perhaps the target audience does not tend to use
the internet, or likes to take longer over the consideration
and buying process. DM also offers a broader reach and is
often more creative. For these reasons, many clients, says
Seth, get the best of both worlds by using the two
concurrently to target different groups of customers.

"Everyone thought the web was going to revolutionise the
media world," he says." But we've seen that it is merely an
addition to the marketing toolbox. E-mail is just the same."

The low cost, speed and interactive capabilities of
e-mail are widely recognised by clients and
agencies alike. Nevertheless, says Chris Parry,
Group Director at DirectionGroup, e-mail is still
only another medium and another route to market,
and should be viewed as such.

"There are certain drawbacks to e-mail marketing"
says Parry. "Some consumers are ambivalent about
seeing something on screen and prefer the feel and
quality of a handheld mailer. Other target groups,
including some with huge disposable income, are
less savvy with the internet."

And Greg Sendell, client services director at marketing
agency Toast, believes that the speed and affordability of
e-mail can make marketers become complacent.

"Marketers aren't treating e-mail with the respect that
it deserves," he says."It needs to be seen as another
medium, not a quick fix to reach multiple customers at
the touch of a button. Until people approach e-mail in
the same way as planning for any other medium, it'll be
hard to shrug off the poor quality issues it faces."

According to Sendell, companies seem willing to embark
on e-mail campaigns, knowing they are relatively quick and
cheap to execute, without the same sort of attention to
detail that goes into other types of campaign using different
media.

"E-mail needs to be treated as a separate medium," he says.
"There needs to be planning and targeting to ensure that you
get the most from it. Thought needs to be given to the creative
and to different executions. You wouldn't conduct a direct mail
campaign without proper planning. Why would you do so with
e-mail?"

And at data analysis agency Cognisance, which buys in more
than 60 million customer records a year, managing director
John Regan is sceptical about using e-mail for direct marketing,
at leastfor customer acquisition purposes.

He says: "E-mail has achieved its junk tag all too easily. At
the moment, it's unlikely that e-mail will become a successful
part of the wider DM package. For identified customers where
you already have a relationship, then it is of use. But where
you are looking at acquiring new customers, the future's a
little less clear."

The main problem, argues Regan, lies with the data suppliers.
Until they begin releasing the addresses for analysis purposes,
he says, e-mail's use for customer acquisition will remain
limited.

"Without being able to analyse the data, successful targeting
of direct e-mail campaigns is an impossibility," insists Regan.
"At the end of the day, we should really be thinking about
ways to accurately model e-mail data instead of just increasing
the volumes of junk e-mail."

"As it stands, there is so much junk e-mail flying around
that it is more likely to be trashed before it is opened and
read. With this in mind the future of e-mail as a DM tool is
bleak, without some significant changes being made. I for one
am yet to be convinced that clients should be using e-mail for
acquisition purposes."


For further information, please contact:
Richard Stephens
DirectionGroup
Tel: 0118 989 8104
Mob: 07836 587096
Email: richards@directiongroup.co.uk
www.directiongroup.co.uk