NEW YORK — Fifty-five percent of Hispanics receive six or more pieces of advertising mail weekly, according to the Direct Marketing Association's 2005 Statistical Fact Book, released at the DM Days Conference and Expo here.
The book includes new information on the Hispanic market and expanded chapters on interactive media, including search engine marketing.
Compiled by the DMA's research department, the publication also contains information on e-mail marketing, catalogs, interactive marketing, direct response advertising, lists and databases, direct mail and customer service.
Each chapter offers various highlights. In the chapter on interactive, the book states that the average cost to acquire an online customer is $24 or less.
The nearly 500 charts comprising this year's edition feature data that highlight media and market growth usage trends by specific media and markets; pinpoint consumer and business attitudes and buying habits concerning direct marketing; quantify and compare marketers' outlooks and expectations on key issues; provide expenditure, production and operating cost figures; and identify DMers' attitudes, concerns and policies regarding environmental issues.
Other statistics from the book include:
· Forty-seven percent of companies increased their expenditures in 2004.
· Direct mail (other than catalogs) remains the most-used direct marketing method.
· Internet advertising in 2004 surpassed $9.6 billion, a total that was 32.5 percent higher than in 2003.
· Sixty-five percent of consumers shop from catalogs, on the Internet, over the phone or by mail because of convenience.
· Respondents were about evenly split in their reasons for using direct marketing, with 52 percent using it for customer acquisition and 47 percent for customer retention.
Print and CD-ROM versions of the book can be ordered at www.the-dma.org or by calling 800/344-8328. The price, in either print or online format, is $195 for DMA members and $395 for non-members.
Melissa Campanelli covers postal news, CRM and database marketing for DM News and DMNews.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters
