Junk Mail/Spam -- The Song Remains the Same

Was just reading some updates on direct e-mail response data.  For example:

1. An estimated 85% of e-mail is spam (explains a lot about my e-mailbox ...)
2. Response rates are similar to your odds playing the lottery (between 94% and 99% of recipients will either not open, not answer or eventually delete direct pitches).
3. Direct marketers tend to address these trends by simply upping their mail numbers.  Playing the laws of probability alone (vs. targeting and segmenting), the more they mail, the more leads they'll uncovered simply by chance.

My questions are these:  Who the hell has budget for that nonsense? And where the hell did they learn how to design marketing strategy?

Seriously?  No wonder Marketing takes such a bad rap -- some folks are out there working hard to earn it.

An interesting side bar to this discussion is that the pendulum began swinging back to USPS direct mail a few years ago.  In 1999, e-mail was a "novel" delivery system.  More opens, more views, more response, etc. than paper-based "junk mail."

As a result of that and the lower costs, so many marketers went digital, that about 2 years back, snail-mail began regaining ground against e-mail's numbers. That said, there are still common denominators:

1- "Garbage in/garbage out," if your list is untargeted and poorly maintained -- regardless of delivery system -- you're return is going to suffer.

2- If you don't support your direct marketing tactics with additional channels you are decreasing your open rates (call it the "Montessori Marketing Method," if you will ... okay, it's just integrated marketing tactics, but I like the analogy).

3- No one opens mail from a source that lacks credibility.  So, if you're not leveraging some form of strategic, high-quality Content Marketing (i.e., intelligent development and dissemination of articles, blogging, whitepapers, e-books, etc.) in conjunction with channels that are widely regarded as pure, unfounded, self-promotion, you are costing yourself opportunities and $$.

I guess the moral of the story is that it still all comes down to the fundamentals.  Again.

To read more on this topic, check out these excellent resources:
http://www.btobonline.com/section/b2b_direct_marketing
http://www.delivermagazine.com
http://www.the-dma.org/whitepapers/
http://tomfishburne.com/2011/07/direct-marketing.html
http://directmarketingmag.com/