While mobile and social media marketing tend to be the focus for many business owners, the reality is that most companies need to consider crossmedia marketing, leveraging all possible platforms to reach potential consumers. As much as 44% of survey respondents indicated that they are using multi-channel marketing, leveraging three or more channels. Within that context, then, understanding cross media marketing trends is crucial.

What few companies realize is that digital is being outperformed by direct mail response rates ? and not just by a small amount, by a long shot. In fact, the average direct mail response rates sit at about 1% with a prospect list and 3.7% with a house list. A recent survey found that more than 805 of companies surveyed were planning to use the same amount or more direct mail campaigns in the current year.

Costs are also comparing favorably. So where Mobile and Social Media both sit at a cost per acquisition at $16-18, Paid Search at $21-30, Internet Display at a significant $41-50 and even email at $11-15, direct mail has a cost per acquisition at $19. For local shops and banks, in particular, direct mail (48%) is the preferred method of communication, while email ranks higher for event information and competitions, with more than half of respondents indicating this preference.

Direct marketing strategies need to embrace the benefits of the medium. For direct mail, size matters. Oversized envelopes have by far the best response rate at 5%, with postcards having a response rate of 4.25%, dimensional mail 4%, catalogs at 3.9%, and letter-sized envelopes at 3.5%. Cost-wise size also has implications with dimensional mail costing $30 and postcards less than half that at $14.

The benefits of cross media marketing are that you can target consumers where they are and how they want. Email has the broadest reach at 82% with an average of 1.47 million emails per month sent out by U.S companies, and is used mostly for direct sales and lead generation. Driving retail traffic and other goals are less associated with this platform. Return on investment across social media and direct mail is the same at 15% to 17%. Keeping abreast of cross media marketing trends means you can better target the media that best suit your company and generate better ROI while lowering costs.