Direct Mail on the rise in the US

Marketers will spend $163 billion on direct marketing in 2011, a 5.6% increase compared with last year, according to a report released by theDirect Marketing Association (DMA) on Oct. 2. The report also found that direct marketing accounts for 52.1% of total U.S. ad spending.

The DMA projected that direct marketing ROI will reach $12.03 of sales per dollar of expenditures in 2011.

Next year, digital marketing's share of marketing budgets will increase by two percentage points to 21%, according to the DMA. Of the various direct marketing channels, mobile is forecast to experience the most growth over the next year, rising by 38.7% to $1.2 billion. By contrast, direct-response magazine, radio and newspaper spending are all expected to decrease over the next year, with direct-response newspaper advertising predicted to decline by 9.9% to $7.0 billion.

Telemarketing is expected to remain the top spending channel, growing by 0.8% next year to $36.9 billion. Direct-response TV is expected to follow at $22.9 billion, a 3.8% bump from 2011.