Small business owners are planning to spend more on direct mail this year, with 21% saying they’ve upped their budgets in this area, according to Cynthia Boris at Marketing Pilgrim.
The data comes from the 2014 Small Business Marketing Forecast from Ad-ology, which interviewed more than 1,000 SMB marketers about their planned advertising spend for 2014.
According to Boris, “This is the biggest area of increase out of 16 options,” and the stat surprised her. She expresses her dismay that many of the companies are foregoing plans to increase their marketing spends in social media, mobile apps or videos, calling it “crazy.”
While Boris is clearly an advocate of digital marketing, what she seems to forget is that for small and medium-sized businesses, direct mail remains a fantastic way to engage with new prospects and existing customers, in both B2C and B2B environments.
Smart marketers are once again turning to this tried-and-true channel because results are what matters. Direct marketing delivers many things that online ads just can’t, and in a tight budget scenario every result matters.
Of course, every business will have unique results, and it’s good to try out new channels to see what you can make happen. But the giddy, almost manic, rush to dump money into digital channels just because everyone else does is not something we advocate. We are relieved to see the frenzy ratcheting down, replaced by saner discussions of ROI and results.
Where does your marketing budget stack up this year? Check out this graphic and compare.
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