Like it or loathe it, social media is here to stay and is having an ever increasing impact on society and can also have an impact upon how you conduct your direct marketing campaigns.

According to the latest search trends from Google, interest in Direct Mail has grown to it’s highest level in 2011.

The data from Google Insights, a free tool from Google, shows UK searches for ‘direct mail’ from the start of 2006 to 2011 to date. The resulting graph shows that the second quarter of 2011 in particular saw increased interest in direct mail following a fall in searches in the second half of 2010.

New users of Prospect Download online mailing list service from Selectabase are being offered free trials of business or consumer marketing data. Anyone creating a new online account will now receive 50 free credits to try out the Prospect Download service. The list credits can be used to source and download some sample data from the business or consumer databases, to use in a sample direct marketing campaign.

Selectabase have responded to customer demand by launching a new direct mail fulfilment service called Create and Post. The service aims to offer a low cost and simple way to send mailing letters to Selectabase databases or any other mailing lists.

In many business sectors things can quiet down during the summer period, making it the ideal time to carry out data cleansing on your marketing lists.

Data cleansing is an important and valuable exercise. Accurate data can help improve response rates and targeting for marketing campaigns and if your business is a Data Controller you have an obligation to keep your data up to date under the Data Protection Act.