No question about it…direct mail can be expensive in some cases. But, when compared to other channels, the return can be outstanding.

With mail, your prospect literally holds it in their hands. There is no world-wide web lurking behind the mail like there is with the email that you’ve sent out or the web page that your prospect is viewing. And there is no channel surfing for other program competition that infomercial marketers fear.

The old adage “you get what you pay for” is true with direct marketing. My advice is to try both online and offline marketing of your products and services – you’ll likely find that online channels help you build a list quickly while offline channels provide you with prospects who are willing to buy once and buy again very shortly thereafter.

Direct mail will never go away completely because the buyers it generates are simply too valuable. Let’s look an example:

A Pay Per Click campaign, for example, may generate 10,000 new names…at a marketing cost of $10,000. Those names might carry a lifetime value of $25 each — meaning a total lifetime value of $250,000. When you subtract out the $10,000 marketing cost, you’re left with a total value of $240,000.

A Direct Mail campaign, on the other hand, may generate 5,000 names — at a higher marketing cost of $20,000. But those names would carry a much higher lifetime value of $75 each. That means you’d see a total of $375,000 over the life of those names — and a net of $355,000 once marketing costs are subtracted.