It was January, 2011 when I first wrote about how $220 Billion Global King Kong GOOGLE goes offline with direct mail. Now, $100 Billion Global King Kong Jr FACEBOOK followed suit.

The thing that amazes me most is all the naysayers that continue to place direct mail in the "has been" category and in an attempt to promote and sell their own digital product or service, claim direct mail doesn't work anymore and if you do it, you’re wasting your money. Our car dealer clients continue to run direct mail every month and continue to break records set even back in the good ol days.

I have to admit, when I saw a direct mail piece from Facebook in my stack of mail that I go through every day (just like over 200 million other Americans), it stunned me. Almost a billion users, money in the bank stacked up high, can own the internet and even news media, but you do direct mail to get your message out? Nice... Facebook knows the power of direct mail...

I was also a little giddy. It doesn't matter how small or BIG the company is (and I have been saying this for over 20 years), when you really need to get your message in the hands (and I mean literally) of the person or people who are most likely to purchase your product, direct mail is a critical tool. It is not the only one, but it is the one you better not forget about, if you want to be competitive and gain market share. In fact combine direct mail with today's many digital tools, and enjoy ROI OFF THE CHARTS!

Facebook, Twitter, and the other 500 top social sites are cute and can help companies build relationships. But for ROI, and solid proof that a dealership is investing in something that will give them a return, direct mail is it.  Invest $4,000 on a 5,000 piece mailer, get 50 ups, 28 test drives, 20 write-ups, sell 12 vehicles at $2,800 a copy = $33,600 GP. (lets not forget residual from proper follow-up and the good trade-ins that were cleaned up and put back out on the used car lot for more profit)

Car dealers rejoice, direct mail marketing is still the workhorse of the industry and the only choice when you absolutely, positively, have to have that BIG $$$ WEEKEND!

I am out!