Posted by Brian Berg Google+
I've been getting asked daily about how the direct mail industry is doing, what's working, what's not working, and how this economy is affecting which industries more or less. Though, on average, BB Direct is about 30% busier today (mid December 2008) than we were one year ago, there are some mail service providers who've slowed down considerably. I believe this is partly because we haven't put our eggs into one basket, but instead, we've aligned ourselves with clients who intelligently market to those segments of the business community that do well no matter how our economy is doing.
Yes, we've seen an evaporation of mortgage lender mailing opportunities and a big drop in the auto dealership marketing as of late. But we've also experienced businesses which focus on the fix-income market do more mailing today than they've ever done before.
I would ask that anyone willing to share their good, their bad, and their ugly to please do so. Please comment on what you're business has been doing. We are looking for mailers of any kind to share with us what you see in this market, what you forecast for 2009, and what changes you've been making to prepare for this difficult time.
What businesses are seeing a dip/drop in response? Which mailers have disappeared? And which mailers are going steady or excelling as a direct result of the recession we are experiencing? Any information you can provide would be helpful. In the mean time, I'll be updating this blog with information about what I hear from our mail service provider clients.
I'll keep be asking these questions of everyone, whether they are buying more or less mailing list data from BB Direct. If there's anything that we might all learn together, it will come from you. So please submit your comment and let us know what you've been experiencing. And as always, thank you in advance!