Is Direct Mail Under Threat?

Celebrities have joined forces to rid Britain of unwanted "junk" mail - this could be good for business and the environment.

Plain Words reports

At the beginning of October pop star Dannii Minogue and former Wimbledon tennis champion Pat Cash joined forces to rid Britain of unwanted junk mail.

The Australian celebrities called on frustrated residents to sign up to the Mailing Preference Services (MPS), a free scheme run by the UK direct marketing industry, which stops people receiving unwanted advertising mail.

The pair are helping to promote the service in a bid to cut the 76,000 tonnes of junk mail that ends up in British landfill sites every year. £70 million worth of it is wasted on people who have moved house.

Cash is co-founder of international environment group Planet Ark, which is supporting the campaign. He says the free service will cut the amount of waste junk mail produced each year.

"Britons receive nearly four billion pieces of direct mail every year," says Cash. "Nearly a third of this mail is unread because it is irrelevant to the people who are receiving it. This new campaign will give people the choice whether they want to receive it or not."

Already more than 1.2 million consumers have subscribed to the MPS, which cuts their direct mail by around 95%.

Could it harm business?

This will come as welcome news to those who "love to hate" junk mail. But many firms rely on direct mail to make sales, drum up business, or to simply remind existing customers what products and services they offer. Could the new service harm them?

For most businesses, the effect will be positive. After all, there is little point sending direct mail shots to people who aren't interested in what you have to offer - or to people who loathe the very idea of "junk" mail.

The new service will serve to clean out rented mailing lists, so they contain more targeted leads (i.e. people interested in the products or services on offer). This means businesses that use direct mail will get a better response rate and thus will reap more profit from their mail shots. Less wastage will also be good for the environment, which will reflect well on the direct marketing industry in general.

Bad image

It is widely acknowledged that direct mail has an image problem. Almost two thirds of the public object to it, according to the Direct Mail Information Service, and 38 per cent find it "intrusive". Complaints about direct mail rocketed by 51 per cent a couple of years ago, states the Advertising Standards Authority.

"The problem," says Dave Robottom of the Direct Marketing Association, "is that, unlike TV and radio adverts that come and go within a few seconds, mail shots just linger on the sideboard or telephone table. While some TV ads are better than the programmes they interrupt, direct marketing is often formulaic, confusing, wordy, and unsophisticated."

Most of us have learned to see through claims of "miracle prize draws" and "0% APRs" without even opening the envelope. But according to British veteran direct marketer Drayton Bird, bad direct mail falls down for one simple reason: it is written from the point-of-view of the writer, not the customer, and this is why it is seen as "junk" mail.

In his book, How To Write Sales Letters That Sell, he says: "Junk mail is like the pub bore. Somebody you find tedious because they talk about things that interest them and not you. They don't have the sensitivity to tailor their conversation to fit you."

With a targeted audience and better writing not only would businesses stand to make greater profits, but also those consumers that currently dislike direct mail could well begin to see it in a better light. The MPS will help with this by enabling businesses to target their direct mail to relevant consumers - with the added bonus that it will help the environment too.

Further Information

Mailing Preference Service (MPS)
Direct Mail Information Service
Direct Marketing Association
Planet Ark

Plain Words editorial
4 Nov 2003