Acquisition mailing made up 70% of the $52.5 billion marketers spent on direct mail during 2004, according to a new study. This is not because CRM has diminished in importance: Rather, marketers are becoming savvier in their ability to target messages to current customers, according to a new study. The overall trend in mail use is growth, however, and there is no sign of this abating.
While sources disagree about the rate of increase, all contend that its use will grow 2005. The Direct Marketing Association anticipates a conservative 5.2% growth rate, while Veronis Suhler Stevenson said growth would amount to 5.5%. Winterberry Group, which sponsored the study, predicts 7.5% growth, and Universal McCann was the most generous in its forecast, anticipating an 8.5% increase.
Among vertical industries, insurance financial marketers are seen as leading mail uses growth between 2002 and 2007, with an anticipated 8.4% compound annual growth rate, followed by hospitality marketers at 7.6%; not-for-profits, 7.3%; healthcare and pharmaceutical mailers, 6.6%; publishers, 6.1%; automotive marketers, 5.1%; telecommunications, 4.8%; banking and credit card marketers, 3.7%; technology, 3%; and retail (non-catalog) 2.7%.
The 2005-2006 period will see marketers adjusting to postal rate increases by optimizing their mailing. Some in sensitive areas, such as health care and areas that use personally identified data that is increasingly covered by state and federal regulations, will have to react to legislation that may impede their ability to reach both targets and customers.
But the news isn
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