There's an interesting chart in the June issue of Direct magazine about the best sources for building your email list; and the #1 list-growth tactic email marketer's use is *not* online marketing/search!

Wanna guess what it is?

According to a recent poll of 321 online marketers (including B-to-B and B-to-C companies) by email marketing firm Silverpop, old-fashion offline media rules for the most utilized list growth strategies. Check it out:

Asked to name their list-growth tactics, almost two-thirds of the e-mail marketers surveyed cited offline advertising and direct marketing. More than half mentioned trade shows or online marketing and search. Viral marketing was third.

This proves "some of the most successful channels are the traditional ones [including catalogs and direct mail]," said Elaine O'Gorman, Silverpop's vice president of strategy.

But isn't direct mail, the workhorse of the direct marketing world, largely a dead/dying medium?

Not according to an article on B-to-B customer acquisition strategies written Ruth P. Stevens (in the same issue of Direct Magazine) where she says "Reports of direct mail's demise are greatly exaggerated. The ol' reliable medium still delivers."

Marketing copywriter/agitator/guru Dan Kennedy says that the one commonality in his highest earning clients (spanning 156 product, service, business and profession categories) is their "constant, frequent, aggressive, innovative and masterful use of direct mail. Neglect it at your peril."

But how to track the success or failure of your next direct mail campaign on your website using Google Analytics?

Actually, it's quite easy.

Either purchase an unique URL, and have it redirect to a specific page on your site and insert the Google Analytics tracking codes, or write a redirect script from a sub-directory on your site.

For more details on the mechanics, see our article entitled "How to track offline ads with Google Analytics" or hire us to help you with this and much, much more.