According to the Direct Marketing Association, in 2012 commercial and nonprofit marketers will spend about $168.5 billion on direct marketing initiatives. That’s just over half of all ad expenditures in the U.S. The DMA’s Response Rate 2012 Report reveals that 79 percent of overall respondents to the survey and 95 percent of nonprofit respondents use direct mail. The survey found that letter sized direct mail packages had a response rate of 3.4 percent for a house list, and 1.28 percent for a prospect list. By comparison, e-mail has a lower response rate — only about one customer in a thousand will end in a new sale or donation. And though telemarketing had the highest response rate of all media surveyed, it also carries a high average cost per order/lead, at $77.91 for cross/upselling and $190.49 for prospects. Direct mail was just $19.35 for upselling and $51.40 for prospect mailings. Statistics