As direct marketers have more choices than ever on how to spend their ever dwindling marketing budget, I thought it would be helpful to pass along some useful information, some from our paper mill partners, that will help marketers as they evaluate various options of how to best get their message out to consumers.

In our personal lives, we have all taken important steps to reduce our impact on the environment and in most cases, we have in our business lives as well. It is important that we each do our part. Recent studies have found the following:

• 43% of companies plan to increase spending on green marketing practices in 2009.
• 82% of consumers are focused on buying green products and services.
• 7 out of 10 consumers pay attention to company practices regarding the environment and 35% have a higher interest today than one year ago.
• 57% of the population is now aware of the term "carbon footprint" up from 38% in 2007

Print communication can be a responsible and effective choice for green marketing. Paper mills and printers have been meeting their environmental goals as recycling and responsible forest practices have greatly increased in recent years. Here are some examples:

• U.S. forestland has increased by 10 million acres in the last 20 years.    
• In 2007, 57% of all paper and paperboard waste (45.2 million tons) were recovered from recycling and 40.3% of standard mail was recovered, up from 23.9% in 2003. 
• The EPA reported that only 2% of municipal waste was generated by advertising mail but many adults incorrectly thought the figure to be substantially higher, at 53%. 
• A recent study concluded that consumers rank direct mail 3.9 out of 5 as their preferred channel of marketing. E-mail follows at 3.7 and all ohers rank below.
• 75% say they have made a purchase as a result of direct mail and catalogs and direct mail generate the second and third highest response rates, just behind telemarketing.

Using environmentally responsible paper for print projects costs less than many people realize as a November ’08 study showed that 2/3 of marketing/creative professionals incorrectly believed that "green" paper costs more, by an average of 23%. In many cases, it often costs the same as "virgin" paper -- and there are substantially more choices available today from every major paper supplier and mill than ever before.