Comparability speaking, the direct mail piece would generate the interest, the call to action would be an 800 number, and the telemarketer would respond to the prospect. This would put more reliance on the prospect to respond. With digitally based advertising and marketing communications channels, the response rates are typically higher than 6 -- 7% as it just takes a click of a mouse to get opt-in to proceed with a sales cycle (Pauwels, Weiss, 2008). Due to the speed of online advertising and marketing communication, and the high level of traceability it provides in terms of digitizing all activity, many marketers have favored these methods globally. Marketing Sherpa, a marketing consultancy firm recently published an analysis of these channels (Marketing Sherpa, 2011). Their analysis indicates that marketers will increase spending on websites by 64%, search engine optimization (SEO) by 62%, social media, 53$ and e-mail by 53% throughout 2011. The study also...

Direct mail will however decrease by 25%, and print ads, 37% (Marketing Sherpa, 2011).
Conclusion

The ability to track results in real-time online is turning into a major catalyst of marketing spending change. The shift from direct-based approaches to advertising and marketing communications is in the process of shifting entire marketing budgets as the analysis from Marketing Sherpa shows.

References

Marketing Sherpa Research, Initials (2011). Marketing budget landscape for 2011. [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.marketingsherpa.com/1news/chartofweek-01-25-11-lp.htm

Pauwels, K., & Weiss, a.. (2008). Moving from Free to Fee: How Online Firms Market to Change Their Business Model Successfully. Journal of Marketing, 72(3), 14.

Spilker-Attig, a., & Brettel, M.. (2010). Effectiveness of online advertising channels:…