This article was written by Drayton Bird - best selling writer, founder of EADIM

My friend Michael Rhodes the excellent web-meister at Leger Holidays sent me something interesting last week.

It seems that while many of us marketers are wetting our pants at the wonders of the internet, 60% of UK consumers think offline direct marketing is far more likely to get them to visit the website of a company they have not bought from before.

This comes from a new survey by Pitney Bowes, who have decided to call themselves a “messaging specialist” - typical corporate wankery.

Their press release says the same thing about six times on the grounds no doubt that they think all marketers are idiots, but what it revealed was clear even to an old fool like me.

Anyhow, only 24% of people said a message delivered through digital media such as email, a sponsored web link, or an ad on a social networking website would drive them to a company site with a first-time purchase in mind.

The survey covered 10,000 adults in the UK, Germany, France, Scandinavia and Benelux. Besides being written in dire marketing gabble it had one weird figure. It said “UK consumers aged 35-34 (67%) were most likely to visit and consider buying from a website for the first time after being directed there by an offline message”.

I think it is about 12 years since I (and many other people) started suggesting this would be likely. Generally, media do not replace each other; they complement each other. But try and tell the internet zealots that!

The good news, of course, is that there aren’t that many people around who can write decent ads or direct mail. Some of the best have just given up because of lack of demand and the absurdly low rates being paid.

I look forward eagerly to hiking up my prices, ho ho ho. Actually, I look forward to the 48 hour day because we’re rushed off our feet. Better than the alternative, I guess.

–> Learn more about Drayton Bird here

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