Since the 19th century, when John Wanamaker introduced the first direct-mail campaign to promote his department store items, companies discovered direct-mail as a viable and effective form of advertising. Today, more companies are recognizing direct mail as their primary form of advertising.

In a survey conducted by Direct Magazine, direct marketing accounts for more than 55.7 percent of companies' total marketing budgets, exceeding all other spending categories by as much as 32.6 percent. Over the past ten years, direct-mail advertising expenditures have increased 275 percent.

Why are companies focusing their marketing efforts with targeted lists and direct mail instead of mass advertising? Direct mail is shown to be the most cost-effective, efficient and reliable form of advertising to date.

In 1994, sales generated from direct mail reached $252.7 billion dollars, a growth of 10 percent, as reported in Direct Marketing.

"The beauty of direct mail is one word -- accountability," says Diane Wiederstrom of Grizzard List Services in Atlanta and a 16-year veteran of direct mail techniques. "When you create a direct-mail piece, you know all of the costs that are incurred in creating, printing and mailing the piece. And if you key code correctly, you will know exactly what timeline, what list and what piece generates the most results. Direct mail is quantifiable, where other forms of advertising are not."

Cecil Sumner at the AMA Direct Marketing Special Interest Group in Tucker, Georgia agrees. "The challenge of general advertising is that most ads are image-building and not response-building, so it is difficult to measure the success of a campaign, without incurring the extra costs of conducting surveys and focus groups," says Sumner.

The recent upsurge in direct-mail activity can be attributed to loyalty marketing. "Historically, in American industry, we have thought of customers as the next customer we sell when in point of fact we should be thinking of the lifetime value of the customers we have," said Harry J. Buckel, president of Harte-Hanks Shoppers, Brea, California, in a recent issue of Advertising Age.

"It costs something on the order of a magnitude of five to seven times more to acquire a customer than to keep one. In more difficult economic times, I think the appropriate focus has been to understand better what our customers need and want and how we build loyalty over time," says Buckel.

Eighty-five percent of companies surveyed by the Direct Marketing Group say that direct mail best drives companies' prospecting and selling campaigns. Cross-selling, customer retention and renewal, lead generation and information bonding were also listed as important objectives of direct mail.

From marketing newsletters to lead-generating flyers and informational postcards to sales-driven coupons, you will find the most effective way to communicate your message is through direct mail.