Direct Mail vs. E-Marketing

What are some of the benefits of direct mail compared to electronic means of marketing?
Direct mail definitely has some benefits compared to electronic means of marketing. People look through their direct mail everyday whereas people don’t always check their email everyday. Also people can just delete emails that were sent to them if the title doesn’t appeal to them. With direct mail, people actually will most likely look over all of their mail before throwing it in the trash. As stated in the article, companies take the time to personally sign letters. Customers like to see that companies care about them which in turn lead to the response of the customers. E-marketing is less personal because emails are sent to everyone with lots of information that doesn’t really pertain to them and doesn’t focus on a certain group of individuals. In addition, direct mail is obviously a benefit when the sales of some companies had dropped up to 25% and customers were calling and asking if they were taken off of their list.
Bar codes (addressed in one article) seem so promising, but what are some of the possible concerns with their use?
Bar codes are very interesting to me and it’s kind of cool how technology has advanced so much. My friend just bought a new phone which has a bar code scanner on it and we were trying to scan a random bar code and it didn’t work because of the lighting. So her phone needs some adjustments or else she will forget about it and not use the scanner. Another issue might be which magazines the bar codes are in. Companies should do research to see what magazines are the most popular so that more people will see the bar codes.
Do you think e-marketing techniques will replace traditional forms of marketing (direct mail, phone calls, newspaper ads and promotions)?
E-marketing techniques will not replace traditional forms of marketing. First of all, not everyone owns a computer and many people do not know how to use computers. People in my family never grew up with computers so they don’t have experience with them and don’t have the desire to own one. Also there are many people who can’t afford computers and receive the same information for free through direct mail. Direct mail is so much more significant because everyone checks their mailboxes for bills and letters. Therefore, companies should take advantage of this and send out flashy postcards to catch their customers’ attention.
Besides the types of business and examples that are mentioned in the article, what are some other companies who would benefit from direct mail efforts? How would they benefit?
I think that smaller businesses benefit more from direct mail efforts than larger companies. For example, my mom works for a dentist office and sends out reminder cards for their patients telling them when their appointment is. She also calls the day before reminding them the time of the appointment. This has worked very well because the patients usually hang their cards on their fridges so they will remember. Also the patients can save their voicemails or speak to my mom in person the day before. If my mom sent emails people, they would most likely forget to read the emails or delete them. So direct mail is definitely a benefit for small service companies.
Do you think that direct mail will be replaced with e-marketing? If not, what do you think the benefits are of direct mail?