It’s no secret that direct marketing can drive millions of pounds in new business straight to your door. In fact, new research published by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) shows that the UK’s direct marketing industry generates £205 billion in sales annually.

Traditionally, the most common form of direct marketing has been direct mail. However, according to the findings of a recent Marketing GAP Report, 51% of consumers now state that email is their favoured means of being contacted by companies, pushing direct mail into second place. That being said, direct mail has grown 137% in the last 10 years. Which begs the question, when it comes to direct marketing which is best?

Let us give you some Insight…

One of direct mail’s biggest advantages is its ability to make personal one-to-one contact with your prospect. Other direct mail advantages include:

- Highly targeted - using carefully developed lists, you can target your mailings more selectively than you can with most other media
- More personal - not only can letters be personalized but you can use more informal language in writing your letter and direct it to the specific interest of the reader
- List of loyal customers - direct mail allows you to build and maintain a list of prime prospects for your future direct mail campaigns
- Quick to produce - you can prepare and mail a small promotion within days or weeks.

Then again, e-marketing can help you deliver the right content to the right prospect at the right time and continuously achieve high response rates. Perhaps that would explain why Microsoft sends out over 20 million email marketing pieces every month.  Other advantages of email marketing include:

- Lower cost – costs incurred in designing, executing, testing, sending and receiving an email campaign can be up to 78% less than a paper-based direct mail version
- Measurable results – special tools are available that accurately measure open rate and click-through rate, enabling you to assess the success of different email campaigns
- Opt-in or unsubscribe options – emails contain opt-in and unsubscribe options which help you to shortlist your prospects and reach only the ones genuinely interested in your offerings
- Faster response – time to receive responses through email is one to three days, while a direct mail campaign would take minimum 7 to 12 days to generate any responses

So what’s the verdict? Here at Insight, 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.

To discuss your marketing strategy call us now 01934 808293, email info@insightdata.co.uk or visit http://www.insightdata.co.uk/insight-data-marketing-services.htm

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There is no point using old data to win new customers. Yet many prospect databases are surprisingly out of date which can cost your company a great deal of time and money.

Salestracker is the world’s first online database for the window industry that is updated live in real time. As Insight Data’s research team interview a contact on the Insight database, the information is instantly updated on Salestracker. This means every time you want to send a mailshot, email campaign, telesales campaign, or your sales team wants to visit potential customers; you simply log-on and access the most accurate, up-to date information.

Salestracker contains detailed information on 60,000 prospects, including over 15,000 fabricators and installers, with in depth analysis on products, volumes and even preferred window/roof systems. You simply subscribe to the Insight database and regions that are most relevant to your business.

But it’s not just about data. Salestracker is also a web-based CRM system which means you can manage leads, attach quotes or call reports, manage tasks and handle your sales and marketing activity. Salestracker is the only prospect database in the window industry to be developed and managed in-house, rather than using a third-party software supplier.

For more information and a free demo, call 01934 808293 or visit www.insightdata.co.uk

Email marketing creates instant response, driving traffic to your website, contact form or landing zone. But with over 150 billion spam emails being sent every day, getting your message to your target recipients requires specialist digital marketing skills.

After all, it’s all too easy to have your campaign caught in spam traps or junk folders – or worse still, have your domain blacklisted for spamming.

Insight Data has a dedicated digital marketing team with the experience and technology to create powerful email campaigns or regular ezines that deliver results – fast.

Insight’s design team can produce beautifully crafted, instant response campaigns in rich HTML format and our sophisticated software then spam-scores the content and tests the email layout in popular email clients such as Outlook, Gmail, and AOL.

Insight Data consider important factors such as your sender ID, subject line and mobile devices (such as Blackberry or iPhone), and our analytics software tracks deliverability, open rates and click-through rates.

As members of the Direct Marketing Association, Insight operates a “Best Practice” policy by taking a professional and ethical approach to email marketing, including a fully managed unsubscribe list to ensure email compliance.

For more information on Insight Data’s email marketing services call 01934 808 293 or visit www.insightdata.co.uk

Revenue is being hit because companies are failing to put in place sufficient measures to ensure email marketing messages are delivered, according to the Direct Marketing Association.

A white paper by the Association’s Email Marketing Council says bad practice is putting marketing strategies at risk and damaging ROI.  To view the white paper in full click here.

The document outlines “ten steps to improved deliverability” including taking measures to improve data collection, monitor sender protection, reduce SPAM complaints and introduce “good list hygiene”.

So what happens to companies in the window industry who want to carry out an email marketing campaign but don’t have the time or resources to follow ‘best practice’ guidelines? According to Pete Fealey, head of Insight Data’s email marketing division, using a specialist agency to carry out your campaign is the ideal solution, saving time and money.

“Insight Data provides clients with an email marketing service that generates leads and gives excellent delivery rates and ROI” explains Pete. “Now companies in the window industry have the opportunity to target their prospects in a digital medium without the hassle of managing the campaign themselves. ”

Insight Data has developed Mailminx, a dedicated email system that dramatically reduces the number of emails caught by SPAM filters and junk email folders, ensuring more emails get through to the intended recipient.

“Instead of sending our 5,000 emails in one go – a strategy which will result in getting blocked by Internet Service Providers – we ‘stagger send’ our emails” explains Pete. “We also INBOX test all our messages against various email clients such as Outlook, AOL, and GMail to ensure consistency, and format emails to take into account the “viewing pane” on Outlook.

While research shows email data degrades on average 5% a month, Insight Data’s full time team of researchers continually cleanse the data and keep it up-to-date.

“Managing an email database is simply too time consuming for a busy window company” Pete comments. “Our full-time team of researchers refresh the database every day, saving our clients a lot of time. We currently hold 50,000 email addresses of people operating in the window, conservatory and building industry, meaning you can reach a broad section of your target market and win their business.”

For more information contact Insight Data on info@insightdata.co.uk, by telephone on 01934 808293 or visit http://www.insightdata.co.uk/Emarketing.htm

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.

Email marketing is the latest “big thing”, but according to the Direct Marketing Association, a large percentage never get delivered to the recipient.

“Email marketing is a science and companies should use a professional service, such as Insight Data’s Mailminx software” explains digital marketing manager Pete Fealey; “We can design and manage the entire email campaign and using our ‘safe sender’ system you won’t get blacklisted for sending SPAM.”

Mailminx has a built-in SPAM score system and an Inbox Tester to scan the email against most major email clients such as Outlook, AOL and Gmail. It also has a full opt-out facility and tracking features so users can see who is reading their email and clicking through to their websites. “And with over 12,000 window industry email contacts, and 15,000 architects and specifiers, we can help you get your message through to the right people” added Pete. “Email is a great tool for generating new business, but we can also provide a regular ezine newsletter service to help you stay in touch with your existing customers.”

For more information contact us on info@insightdata.co.uk, by telephone on 01934 808293 or visit http://www.insightdata.co.uk/Emarketing.htm