Direct Mail Is Booming for Furniture Retailers

February 14th, 2017 by

A recent study was published in Furniture World Magazine. It shows that retail marketers are stepping up marketing initiatives in a number of areas, especially when it comes to furniture direct mail.

Alison McCarthy, writing in eMarketerfurniture direct mail noted a survey from Yes Lifecycle Marketing. This survey found that the top objectives for marketers worldwide was to increase sales, improve customer engagement and improve customer acquisition. In order to support these goals, respondents were prioritizing their marketing channels.  68% were planning to increase email; 54% were increasing their spend in social media. However, over 24% of retailers were planning to increase their spend for direct mail.

The study found that the majority of retail marketers are already using many marketing tactics. For example, Pinterest, social media share buttons and video to engage with customers. Other marketing tactics, such as dynamic offers and user-generated content are less commonly used. However, many retail marketers are interested in implementing these technologies.

Despite the hype around new technologies like virtual and augmented reality, only a small percentage of retail marketers are using them. In fact, more than half of respondents said that these technologies do not apply to their brands at all.

About four in 10 marketers say they will implement cross-channel attribution initiatives and test tools for channels and content. A third say they’re looking to improve their data about their customers. They are looking for more robust information and a better view of their customers and their buying journey.

Fine Tune Your Audience

Direct mail advertising efforts are focused on a small group of highly targeted customers. This gives your message the best chance possible to be seen by the right customers at the right time.

Sophisticated and personalized direct mail campaigns have been hitting big numbers in open and click-thru rates during the past 12 months. In a specific direct mail campaign the open rate equaled 48.94%.

New Homeowners Are the Top Responders

Many furniture retailers use New Homeowner lists to generate new business, since 60% New Homeowners buy furniture in the first 3 months they are in their new homes – more than any other market segment does in a year’s time.

To read the entire study, click here.

Millennials

Millennials and the younger half of Generation X have emerged as the largest segment of the furniture-buying population at 22.4%.

Direct Mail’s Influence on Furniture Customers

  • 46.4% of living room furniture shoppers said an ad/coupon in their mailbox led them to take action
  • 56% of survey respondents in rural geography reported redeeming coupons by cutting them out of advertising inserts. This is 30% HIGHER than those who clip coupons from the newspaper
  • According to the 2018 DMA Response Rate Report, direct mail response rates come in at 9% to a house like and 5% to a prospect list. This is nearly double the response rates from 2017 and the highest response rates have been over 15 year

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