Best Return On Investment (ROI)

Direct marketing provides the highest return on investment (ROI) of all the major marketing media according to a Lightspeed Research study conducted for Advertising Age magazine.

When asked which type of marketing medium provided the best ROI (returned most dollars for the amount invested) the group comprised of CEO's, CMO's, marketing directors and other
marketing professionals from a wide variety of industries, overwhelmingly sighted direct marketing as the winner by a margin of more than 2-to-1 over all others.

The chart above shows that 42% of the respondents indicated direct marketing was the most effective medium to provide the highest return on investment (ROI). Internet advertising finished a distant 2nd with 19% (less than half the amount indicating direct mail). The Internet was followed by magazines at 7%, network TV at 6%, spot TV at 5%, cable TV and newspapers at 3%, and radio was considered least productive with just 2% of the total response.

Prove it!

When asked which marketing medium was the easiest to definitively "prove" ROI, Direct Marketing once again was the clear winner. This time the nearly 6 out of 10 (59%) of the participants chose direct marketing.

When it comes to the ability to track results and actually "PROVE" the return on investment, nearly 6 out of 10 (59%) agreed that direct marketing is the best. Finishing a distant 2nd is miscellaneous media advertising at 11%, followed by coupons at 10% then sales promotions at 8%, and tied for 5th out of 6 were event marketing and public relations with 3% each. Finishing dead last with 1% each were in-store advertising, product placement and custom publishing.