It's true to say that DM has flourished in these tough times as marketers appreciate the accountability the medium can offer. But marketers are always looking for ways to make their campaigns ever more cost efficient and responsive. And it's for this reason the popularity of suppression has risen.
Most businesses now appreciate that suppression isn't rocket science. It simply makes good business sense not to mail people who will never respond -- be it because they have moved house or passed away -- both in a financial sense and in terms of protecting a brand's reputation. Our recently commissioned Mori research revealed that a third of the British public who have received mail to deceased friends and relatives said that they were unlikely to, or have thought twice about, ever purchasing from that company again. The message to marketers? Stop destroying your brand before it's too late.
The majority of direct marketers now appreciate the concept of suppression and understand that suppressing the deceased really is good business practice. However, when it comes to Gone Aways, it seems that many face a wealth of confusion, with a variety of definitions floating around the industry as to what actually constitutes a Gone Away. This is why I believe that clarification on the true characteristics of a Gone Away is needed.
Put in its most simple term, a Gone Away is a person who has moved house and no longer resides at a given address. The definition of a Gone Away is based on definitive evidence that a move has taken place. This is why, and this is the crux of the issue, a Gone Away is NOT a postal return.
A postal returns file is based on assumed data. A Gone Away Suppression file is not. Statistics show that a business will only ever see 28% of postal returns, of which only 30% are accurate. In comparison our own Gone Away Suppression file captures 92% of genuine Gone Aways and is 98% accurate. It's these statistics that those businesses who invest in suppression tools need to be aware of.
I feel that the term "suppression" in its most generic form, and when applied to home movers, is being downgraded as businesses confuse postal returns with absolute and defined Gone Away data. Marketers are unknowingly using postal return files which have slipped under the net and into the generic "suppression" house. Because they are using this data, they are not getting any where near as accurate a match rate as they could with a Gone Away file. Consequently, the industry is running the risk of turning these marketers off of using real, definitive suppression solutions.
So yes, direct marketing has evolved at a fantastic rate over the past few years and marketers have evidently realised the value of the medium (latest figures put DM spend at an all-time high of 拢11.14bn). And it's because of this, not in spite of it, that the industry needs to go back to basics when comes to the core principle of direct marketing -- targeting. DM agencies can come up with the most innovative eye-catching creative offering and CRM specialists can develop outstandingly intelligent relationship systems, but if the direct message doesn't reach the right person at the right address it's time, money and effort absolutely wasted.
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