E-mail is now the most popular form of direct
response marketing, per
a new survey of large U.S. corporations conducted by Direct Partners.

E-mail is used primarily by 35 percent of companies compared to 25
percent that use traditional direct mail and 21 percent that use
promo packages, statement stuffers or freestanding inserts.

The findings echo a study from last fall by MarketingSherpa,
wherein participants reported that "house e-mail marketing"
delivered the best return on investment in terms of direct
response.

The results of the Direct Partners study were derived from 30,000
surveys sent in April to senior executives at companies with 2007 revenues exceeding $100 million. Twenty-eight percent of respondents said that e-mail works most effectively for them, with
24 percent reporting that direct mail does the best job.

"The dramatic emphasis on e-mail as the primary direct marketing
vehicle is significant," said Harry Haber, vp, Direct Partners,
Marina del Rey, Calif. "And why not? It’s fast to deploy,
inexpensive to distribute versus other media, and the response is
rapid."

Most companies (56 percent) reported spending less than $1 million
on direct response media in the past year, while 37 percent said
they spent between $1 million and $50 million.

Half of the respondents said they handle their direct response
marketing internally, while 37 percent conducted it though a
combination of agency and internal resources.

Also among the findings:

• 68 percent market to their prospect database
• 82 percent market to their customer database
• 57 percent said their direct response budget would remain the
  same this year compared to last, while 23 percent reported their
  budget would increase by 10 percent or higher
• 47 percent said that less than 10 percent of their marketing
  budget went to direct response media

Source: Adweek
Hat tip: The Email Wars