Companies are mailing more to their existing customers–and are more pleased with the results, according to survey results presented yesterday at Acxiom/Direct Media’s 24th Annual Business Mailers Co-op Conference & Hi-Tech Marketing Symposium in White Plains, NY.
While gross mail order sales levels have slowed their increase–in the first half of 1998 respondents said they rose 7%, compared with 5.9% in the first six months of 1999–mailings to house files were up 5.6% so far in 1999, compared with 4% at this time in 1998. Mailings to prospects were up only 4.3%, compared to 6.2% in 1998.
Mailers appear to be acting on the tenet that pre-existing customers tend to be more profitable customers. Respondents reported that their pre-tax profits were up 7.4% this year, compared with 6.1% last year.
Further evidence that mailers may be scaling back their activity is seen in respondents’ second-half predictions. On average, marketers saw their mail volume in the second half of 1999 increasing by 2.3%. Last year projections for second-half 1998 were 5.4%.
As trends indicate, a substantial part of the increase should go to existing customers. Respondents said they plan an average of 10 mailings to their customers in 1999, up from nine in 1998. And their best customers should receive 15 mailings, compared with 14 in 1998.
The survey also revealed that mailers are lagging in the e-mail arena. One-third of the respondents said that they market via e-mail; two-thirds said they did not. Thirty-five percent of them said that they had collected e-mail addresses on less than 2% of their file. Another 30% said that between 2% and 10% of their file included them, with 4% indicating that between 10% and one-quarter of the file appended the addresses. Seven percent of the respondents said that between 26% and 50% of their lists had e-mail addresses.
The respondents fared better in their use of the Web: Eighty-two percent said that they have active Web sites. Of those, 71% said they use them to field inquiries, 68% said their sites disseminated information and 61% said they use their sites to take orders. But 75% said that the Web accounted for less than 2% of their total business, while the remainder indicated that it made up between two and 10% of their revenue.
“But I don’t think we have Dell or Gateway responding,” said Acxiom Direct Media’s Lutz Schremmer, who presented the results.
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