2008-04-18 23:27:58 - Surprisingly in this day and age of high tech online marketing, the traditional tried and true methods of mailers, flyers, brochures, and postcards are still a highly effective means of increasing business.

Paper is dead and snail mail is no more. Or so the thinking was (and in some circles still is) due to the increasing reliance on computers and the Internet in our growing hi-tech society. But despite the perception, mail is far from dead (just ask your local postman), and Direct Mail may still be the ideal way for many

companies to market their goods and services and increase business.

As it turns out, many companies and businesspersons are experiencing extreme frustration when it comes to online marketing. While instantaneous email is fast and convenient, it is also proving to be an expensive and very unreliable way to generate new business. The reason is fairly obvious: anyone who uses email quickly learns to ignore the overwhelming amount of unsolicited emails we receive in our inboxes.

Unsolicited emails-better known as SPAM-has reached epidemic proportions and there are entire industries dedicated to the eradication of it. To be labeled as a SPAMMER can carry heavy penalties for the companies that engage in that kind of 'marketing', but that doesn't stop many businesses from trying. Many just put their corporate heads down and keep email-blasting away in a desperate attempt to generate business.

'It's not that online marketing won't work,' says Marty Kassowitz, President of MarketShare (www.marketshareservices.com), a full service marketing and Direct Mail company located in Burbank, California. 'The problem is that many companies and business drop their past successful marketing actions and put their faith in the wonders of the Internet. As many companies are finding out, online marketing can be very expensive and is not necessarily the best way to boom a business.'

There are many potential hazards and difficulties with online marketing. The very nature of the Internet can make it very difficult to connect the business who has a product or service to sell with an individual who may need or want that particular product or service.

Unlike television, radio, magazines or newspapers, the Internet doesn't have a relatively limited number of locations in which to advertise. There are few central gathering places on the Net, and on those relatively few sites that do get a lot of traffic, the expense of advertising on them can be prohibitive and uncertain.

'The problem is that there are literally millions and millions of webpages out there on the Internet,' says Kassowitz. 'And someone surfing the Internet could be on any one of those pages at any given time. It is simply an impossibility for most companies to advertise on every single site that might pertain to their industry.'

The only sites that could be considered 'central' or 'universal' would be the search engine sites, Google being chief among them. Realizing this, many companies have spent small fortunes trying to advertise on the search engines. Usually the results are very disappointing. Just like with email and banner ads, most of us have learned to instinctively ignore Google Ads and the like.

The only real successful online marketing technique seems to be appearing at or near the top of the search engine results when someone is doing a search. But if an industry has thousands or hundreds of thousands competitors, good luck with that. Getting to the top of a search engine like Google can be a mysterious even mystical process that the search engines purposefully don't want the general public to understand.

'Direct Mail actually has many advantages over exclusively using online marketing,' states Kassowitz. 'With Direct Mail, highly targeted marketing campaigns can be developed and used with great effectiveness. Because Direct Mail is physical, is it much more long lasting and the chance to spark interest in the potential client is much, much greater. Additionally, and very importantly, Direct Mail can be a great way to establish web presence on the Internet.'

Kassowitz points out that online marketing is very much a hit or miss proposition. The more Internet savvy an individual becomes, the more apt they are to totally ignore online advertising no matter how spectacular, expensive, or well thought out. With banner ads and other forms of online marketing, one has only milliseconds to attract and interest a potential customer. A well crafted Direct Mail piece has a much better chance of being examines and mulled over. One of the less appreciated aspects of Direct Mail is that it is an excellent way of directing traffic to websites.

'Websites are invaluable to booming a business,' notes Kassowitz. 'But the trick is getting your potential clients to the site. As it turns out, Direct Mail is among the best tried and proven ways of getting new customers. Done right, a mailer will attract attention and interest and get people to your site. Once there, the odds go way up that the potential client or lead will contact the business. Remember, the promotion is highly targeted to begin with, so the interest factor is already there.'

The 'hot lead', of course, is what every sales department in any kind of business is after. In fact, one of the bigger complaints of Internet leads is that they are often of little value. The anonymity of the Internet can result in a lot of fakery, with false names, phone numbers, and imaginary email addresses. If someone takes the time to respond to a Direct Mail piece on the other hand, the odds are that the lead is likely to be much more genuine than its hi-tech counterpart.

'The real trick is creating a promotional piece that 'sticks' and attracts the prospect's attention,' says Kassowitz. 'You have to attract, hold their interest, and then get them to act. Fortunately for us, that's what differentiates MarketShare from other Direct Mail houses-we create highly effective advertising that outperforms everyone else in the industry.'

No, Direct Mail is far from dead, and indications are that business is waking up to the fact that it just may be the best way to boost sales and leads. Certainly, anyone thinking of dumping traditional Direct Mail marketing in favor of going exclusively online should think twice about taking that leap of faith.

For more information on direct marketing or marketing strategies, contact Marty Kassowitz at info@marketshareservices.com or call him at 818-565-5550. Or, visit the MarketShare website at www.marketshareservices.com. -