Newspaper Ads vs Direct Mail

In the gym over the weekend, I overheard a conversation between two women about local newspaper advertising. They were questioning placement, exposure and cost. They also commented on the high cost of yellow page advertising. I almost jumped into their conversation to ask some questions...did they feel like they were getting through to their audience? Was it worth the cost? Were they tracking the responses? With advertising budgets tightening, everyone is looking to squeeze the most out of their money.

Direct mail offers an inexpensive way to directly reach your audience. You can design a clever piece that motivates them to take an action. The action could be to purchase, come into a store or tradeshow booth or respond to a survey. You can then track the effectiveness of the mailing to find out the response rate - aka return on investment. How many people responded? How many sales were generated as a result of the piece? Who responded?

Then you analyze the results and try again - always trying to achieve a better response rate - aka a better return on investment.