Thursday, June 27, 2013

Snail Mail Response Still Beats Digital Channels

Direct mail response is 10 to 30 times higher than that of e-mail, and other digital channels have similar low response rates, according to the latest survey by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). The DMA report explains that "for every 1,000 existing customers receiving a direct-mail piece, 34 will respond on average. For e-mail, the average response -- measured by taking the click-through rate and multiplying the conversion per click -- is 0.12%," or one in 1,000. And that is true even though direct mail response has declined over time, from 4.37% in 2003 to an average response rate of 3.40% today. When it comes to ROI, however, the survey found that e-mail and digital channels win out. The ROI for e-mail was $28.50 in sales generated for every $1 dollar of e-mail spending. The direct mail ROI is pretty much equivalent to e-mail when acquiring a new customer, but e-mail definitely has the edge when it comes to existing customers, with an ROI that's four times higher than direct mail. For more data, see the Advertising Age article at http://adage.com/article/media/dma-snail-mail-phone-beat-digital-response-rates/235364/

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

FTC Chair Calls for Better 'Do Not Track' Solution

New Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Edith Ramirez shocked attendees at the American Advertising Federation’s annual advertising day on Capitol Hill by calling for a universal solution for Do Not Track (DNT), implying dissatisfaction with the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) self-regulatory program, reported a recent Adweek story. "Consumers await a functioning Do Not Track system, which is long overdue," Ramirez said. "We advocated for a persistent Do Not Track mechanism that allows consumers to stop control of data across all sites, and not just for targeting ads." The chairwoman poured salt in the wound by urging the advertising industry to work with the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) to develop a DNT standard that is browser-based, championing Microsoft's Do Not Track browser and Mozilla’s plan to block third-party cookies. The advertising industry has been at odds with Microsoft and Mozilla policies, and the DAA put out a policy statement last year that advertisers would not honor the Microsoft browser because its default setting did not give advertisers choice. Ad industry members thought their DAA program had responded to the FTC’s DNT call two years ago. For more comments, see the story at http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/ftc-chair-stuns-advertisers-148644