I’m a little fed up with digital marketing. Well maybe fed up is the wrong word, its more bored with digital marketing. Yes it’s cutting edge. Yes it’s targeted and response driven (when done right) and apparently its saving the planet from the evils of direct mail.

But it’s just not doing it for me anymore. I want something different. I want….. print back. My name is Zoe and I’m a printaholic. There I’ve said it.

In fairness I’ve always had a bit of a paper fetish. Show me a stationery cupboard full of clean white paper and I’ll show you a smiley sideways face and don’t talk to me about Kindles. The Kindle and drugs are the two things that my son is not allowed to participate in until he is a 40 year old man with a mid-life crisis.

Now there are cynics amongst us that will say that I have switched allegiance just because I’m now the proud owner of the marketing manager title for SM1 Print Studio but having done my research and gorged myself on statistics I was very surprised at some of my findings.

According to Royal Mail in 2011 21.9 million UK adults took action due to direct mail. That’s impressive right? That’s over 48% of the population. Here’s another…. 9 out of 10 people open direct mail (FastMAP) and aiding the point I haven’t made yet, 49% of adults are more likely to open direct mail if they are intrigued by the package (British Market Research Bureau, 2010).

But the planet! The waste! My footprint! The horror! Well, for all those eco-warriors and vegans out there direct mail only accounts for 2.4% of land fill waste plus there’s a host of recycled paper, packaging and vegetable-based inks you can offset your carbon footprint with. More green tales in February’s blog.

Now especially for those cynics above, here’s a tiny incy wincy plug and my point in question, intriguing mail works. In January we ran a ‘Back to Work’ campaign aimed at showing off the possibilities of direct mail. We sent over 200 personalised pencil case shaped packages packed with goodies for your return to work. It was a fun campaign to run and we’ve received lots of interest with customers wanting to do something different for theirs.

But I wouldn’t be a good little marketer if I didn’t send a follow up email directing them to a purl landing page and why wouldn’t I?  Like any type of marketing, print works best when it’s part of a crossmedia campaign but an electronic pencil case just wouldn’t have cut it.

So give print a try, unleash your creativity and add direct mail to your marketing mix. And of course, use our clean white beautiful paper do it :-).

What would you send to your clients? Tweet us your ideas. I smell a competition brewing.