Research recently published by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has highlighted the fact that consumers continue to rate email as their preferred channel for receiving regular communications. According to the findings of the 2009 Marketing GAP Report, 51% of consumers state that email is their favoured means of being contacted by companies, pushing direct mail into second place with the support of 38% of consumers.

Evangelists of digital marketing will probably cite this statistic as confirmation that online channels are overtaking the more traditional modes of direct marketing. However, dig a little deeper into the GAP report and you’ll find that the rise of email is most certainly not the death knell for direct mail. The overall popularity of email has actually dropped 5% since 2008, but direct mail’s popularity has risen by 6% over the same period of time.

 So what does this mean for companies in the window industry? According to Justin Ball, Insight’s Business Development Manager, these figures suggest that an integrated approach, combining both digital and offline direct marketing channels when prospecting for new business, will create the best return on investment (ROI).

 “This study may highlight the rise of e-marketing, yet with a 6% increase in the popularity, direct mail should not be underestimated” explains Justin. “We have found that our clients get much better results when they combine direct mail and e-marketing. The best tactic is to send out direct mail and follow up with an email campaign a few days later. This way, you don’t put all your eggs in one basket and give yourself a much better chance of gaining a response. I would urge any companies who want to use direct marketing to win more customers to think carefully about their ‘marketing mix’ and use a combination of both digital and traditional methods.”

Follow us on www.twitter.com/insightdata or to discuss your marketing strategy with any member of the Insight team, call 01934 808 293.

 For more information on E-marketing, please visit http://www.insightdata.co.uk/Emarketing.htm or for more information on direct mail please visit http://www.insightdata.co.uk/Directmail.htm.

Direct marketing professionals are using social media channels in a bid to enhance their email campaigns, according to new research.

Published by Econsultancy and Adestra, the fourth annual Email marketing Industry Census found that more than a third of companies are using email to encourage the sharing of content on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

Furthermore, 31% of firms said that they were also hoping to do this in the near future, while a fifth of businesses are using email marketing to promote customer ratings and reviews.

Linus Gregoriadis, research director at Econsultancy, said: “Companies must take care to focus on the relevance of their email in a world where it is becoming increasingly important for brands to demonstrate value, rather than bombarding people with unwanted messages.”

This research backs up the view of Pete Fealey – head of Insight Data’s Digital Marketing Division, who has seen a rapid increase in the number of firms using both Twitter and Insight Data’s e-marketing service, Mailminx, to communicate with prospective customers.

“When e-marketing and Twitter work in tandem, our clients have found that response rates have gone through the roof” explains Pete. “Many of the major decision makers in the window industry spend a lot of time using computers, meaning e-mail is an ideal form of communication. Also, many of these people are using social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook and are often following window industry related companies. This gives our clients an opportunity to grab the attention of potential customers on two different fronts, significantly improving response rates.”

For more information on E-marketing, please visit http://www.insightdata.co.uk/Emarketing.htm

To see Insight Data on Twitter please visit www.twitter.com/insightdata

If you would like any more information on this blog or Insight Data in general, please call 01934 808 293 or visit www.insightdata.co.uk

According to a recent study published by Dr Nora Barnes, senior fellow and chair of the society for new communications research at the University of Massachusetts, more than a quarter of Fortune 500 firms have set up Twitter accounts.

Eric Mattson, chief executive officer of Financial Insite and co-author of the report, said: “The continued steady adoption of blogs and the explosive growth of Twitter among Fortune 500 companies demonstrate the growing importance of social media in the business world.”

This trend is echoed in the window industry, with the number of windows companies using Twitter rapidly increasing.

Insight Data’s Business Development Manager Justin Ball comments “many businesses are using social media to communicate with their target audience and the window industry is no exception. We regularly ‘tweet’ our latest news and it is great way of keeping our customers up-to-date with any new developments.”

While twitter may not be an obvious route to market for window companies, Justin Ball believes the growing presence of systems companies, fabricators and industry magazines using the medium is evidence this is beginning to change.

“Lots of people who have desk based jobs in the window industry are likely to visit social networking sites such as Twitter in their lunch-break. Some of these people are using this time to set up business accounts while others are simply following window industry companies using their personal accounts. This means there is a great opportunity to communicate with potential customers and prompt them to find out more about your company or visit your website. Exploring these less obvious routes to market can yield excellent results and we would encourage any of our customers looking to find new customers to embrace this new technology.”

To see Insight Data’s Twitter account follow this link www.twitter.com/insightdata

If you would like any more information on this blog or Insight Data in general, please call 01934 808 293 or visit www.insightdata.co.uk

Direct mail has increased 137% in the last ten years yet according to a recent study by the Direct Marketing Association – the leading authority in direct marketing – the percentage of people binning direct mail has risen from 63% in 2008 to 74% in 2009.

“It is clear that many companies are trying to save money by using old, out of date or inaccurate data” explains Insight Data’s commercial director Helen Costeloe-Hughes. “Recieving a letter addressed to the wrong person will ensure your mail-out is binned while leaving the recipient with a negative view of your company.  It is a completely false economy to save money by using old data while wasting thousands of pounds on postage. Using accurate, meaningful data will dramatically increase your response rate.”

Meanwhile, other sources state that a 5% “returns rate” is acceptable in direct mail.  So, for every 1,000 mail-outs you send, 50 undelivered is reasonable. “We think this is a poor show and wastes a great deal of time and money” continues Helen; “companies do change management and move premises and both of these result in “undelivers”.  But again, if your data is accurate, this won’t happen.”

Insight Data’s fabricator and installer database contains details of 14,123 companies and the database is updated live in real-time by a full time team of researchers.   Users of the data access the information live via SalesTracker, Insight’s online database. 

“Unlike any other data supplier, we actually mail our full database on average every week via our own direct mail division.  This helps us monitor and control data quality so that our clients have the most accurate information.    Our “delivered” rate is 99.8%,  which means just 2 out of every 1,000 mail-outs are “undelivered” explained Helen; “and these are often simply a postal mistake by the Post Office”.

The result? A notable increase in your “return on investment”, as more people will respond to your mail-out.

To help improve your direct mail response further please read some of the other articles on this website.

For more information on direct mail please visit http://www.insightdata.co.uk/Directmail.htm or call 01934 808 293.