A recent study by Borrell reports that direct mail is declining and email is growing. They were also shocked, shocked to find gambling going on at Rick's Cafe in Casablanca (OK, I admit I'm mostly doing this post to see if Casablanca fan Sabrina is still reading my blog:)).
Since even the U.S. Postal Service is aware of and responding to this trend, this is hardly new news.
But it is good that Borrell has quantified the impact. According to a MediaPost article on the study:
"More specifically, it is projecting a 39% decline for direct mail over the next five years, from $49.7 billion in annual ad spending in 2008 to $29.8 billion by the end of 2013."
Over the same time period they have email ad spending going from $12.1 to $15.7 billion.
They also predict a substantial increase in local email marketing by small businesses:
"We're expecting local e-mail advertising to grow from $848 million in 2008, to $2 billion in 2013, as more small businesses abandon direct mail couponing and promotional orders and turn to a more measurable and less costly medium, e-mail."
What is interesting about this piece is that is shows how small businesses are still trying to keep costs as low as possible when marketing (email is about as low as it goes) while intensely focusing on local market. This an interesting trend and one that will continue for some time.
Posted by: Brad MacAfee | May 22, 2009 at 04:04 PM