DMA Releases 2005 Response Rate Report

NEW YORK, October 18, 2005 — The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) today released its 2005 Response Rate Report, the 3^rd annual report on direct marketing research contains some of the industry's most sought-after figures.

"DMA has seen many developments since the days when direct marketing was primarily made up of catalog and other mail-order companies," said Ann Zeller, VP, Information and Special Projects, DMA. "Changes in the marketplace, coupled with database technology that drives most direct and interactive programs, have led to a broadening of overall multimedia usage and direct marketing techniques."

The study contains data on how 570-plus campaigns from 21 industries used 19 different media. Response rate information is broken down by the purpose of the campaigns, including direct order, lead generation, traffic generation, and fundraising. The 19 direct response media covered in the study were direct mail, dimensional mail, postcards, catalogs, e-mail, banner/rich media ads, search engine marketing, co-op mailings, package inserts, statement stuffers, coupons, outbound telemarketing, newspapers, free-standing inserts (FSIs and space ads), magazine space ads and blow-ins, and direct-response radio and long and short form DRTV. Response rate data was gathered on both house file customer and prospecting campaigns.

Direct Order: According to the 2005 report, telephone marketing received the highest ROI index (18.2) for marketers driving direct-order purchases. It followed by e-mail (16.0), dimensional mail (15.3), and direct mail (14.9).

In terms of response rates, telephone is also the leader (5.78 percent) as it was last year at 5.73 percent. This year, dimensional mail response rates ranked second, followed by catalog at 2.18 percent. Telephone marketing and dimensional mail pulled higher response rates than most other direct response media – 5.78 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively.

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Lead Generation: Telephone, dimensional mail, e-mail, and coupons provided the best response rate results for generating leads. Telephone leads all media with the highest response rate of 5.53 percent. Dimensional mail was close behind at 5.28 percent, and e-mail produced an average response rate of 3.39 percent.

Store Traffic: Dimensional mail pulled the highest average response rate (10.04%) based on seven campaigns. Telephone followed (5.33 percent), as did catalog (4.49 percent) and direct mail (4.04 percent).

DMA 2005 Response Rate Report provides response rate benchmarks detailed by media and industry. The report measures data on 573 direct and interactive marketing campaigns. The research contains response rate information from 21 industry categories, including financial products and services, health services, manufacturing, packaged goods, catalog/retail, and travel. Detailed information on promotional tools, free offers, shipping, rebates, and sweepstakes also are included in the report.

Direct Marketing Association (www.the-dma.org) is the leading global trade association of business and nonprofit organizations using and supporting direct marketing tools and techniques. DMA advocates industry standards for responsible marketing, promotes relevance as the key to reaching consumers with desirable offers, and provides cutting-edge research, education and networking opportunities to improve results throughout the entire direct marketing process. Founded in 1917, DMA today has more than 4,800 corporate, affiliate, and chapter members from the US and 46 other nations, including 55 companies listed on the Fortune 100.

In 2005, companies will spend more than $161 billion dollars on direct marketing in the United States. Measured against total U.S. sales, these advertising expenditures are expected to generate $1.85 trillion in increased sales in 2005, or 7% of the $26 trillion in total sales in the U.S. economy (which includes intermediate sales). All together, direct marketing will account for 10.3% of total U.S. GDP in 2005.