A SWOT analysis breaks down the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats facing an industry or organization.
Strengths and weaknesses are inherent to direct mail. Opportunities and threats are external, and companies have no control over them. The key is to leverage your strengths to cash-in on the opportunities, all the while overcoming threats.
To summarize this chart, Direct Mail is neither dead nor dying. Its personal quality, high conversion rates, and the fact that people like receiving direct mail make it an indispensable part of direct marketing for the foreseeable future. However, rising costs, falling budgets, federal regulations and changing consumer preferences mean that the volume of direct mail has been reduced and will continue to decline, which will be supplemented by additional email, mobile and other new-media initiatives. Still, direct mail remains the most effective way to engage with the vast majority of American consumers. And, contemporary direct mail is equipped with cross-media tools such as PURLs and QR Codes to connect it to the Web and make it measurable.
If anything, direct mail is more valuable today than ever. It’s saved for the most crucial campaigns, and when it is implemented, various new media tools are added-on to make it as effective and measurable as possible.
Notes:
1: Majority of Americans prefer to receive product announcements via direct mail. Read more here.
2: Read more about CAN-SPAM here.
3: Read more about the “Do Not Email Registry” here and here. Click here for an example of a No Catalog movement.
