There is no question that direct mail response rates provide businesses with solid results. Even though we may be entrenched in today’s digital society, direct mail offers benefits that no other marketing channel can provide.
These benefits are:
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- Trust and Attention
- Purchase Influence
- Measure-ability
Trust in Print
People tend to trust what they read in print – way more than what they see on-line. I read a trust in news study recently. It clearly shows that people consider printed news magazines their most trusted news source. 72 percent rate them positively. Conversely, just 33 percent agreed that social media “provides news I can trust.” Furthermore, the print versions of national newspapers are more highly trusted than those from the same organizations’ websites.
Direct mail offers advertisers a format that allows them to make the case, use relate-able photos, prove the point, garner trust.
Attention
I’m sure you have heard about the Mail Moment. That’s the time of the day when people go to their mailbox to get their mail. Here are a few results from the USPS Mail Moment study:
Most importantly – mail evokes emotion among consumers:
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- 67% feel mail is more personal than the Internet;
- 56% say receiving mail is a real pleasure;
Mail gets marketing messages immediately into the hands of consumers. Hence, they are eager to see what’s in their mail:
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- 98% of consumers bring in their mail the day it’s delivered, and of these,
- 72% bring it in as soon as possible;
- 77% of consumers sort through their mail immediately.
Mail boasts a loyal readership. Consequently, consumers spend a significant amount of time each day with their mail:
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- Recipients spend an average of 30 minutes reading their mail on any occasion;
- Consumers spend 45 minutes with magazines, 30 minutes with catalogs and 25 minutes with Direct Mail.
Mail may be the easiest way to reach the person in charge of managing household operations and finances:
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- 96% of household mail sorters determine which mail is kept for review;
- 90% of these sorters pay the bills;
- 92% of these sorters are the principal grocery shoppers.
Want to Get it Opened?
The newest creative trends in envelopes are attention grabbers. These great pieces stand out from the crowd and beg to be opened. According to study results from the Data & Marketing Association, over-sized envelopes pull the highest direct mail response rates for both B2B and B2C advertisers. As a result, they also produce the highest ROI among different types of mail.
Even Amazon Does Direct Mail
Direct mail has such strong purchase influence during Holiday season. Most noteworthy, this year, even Amazon is planning to distribute paper catalogs. They are going after new customers with direct mail. Personally, I’m not surprised. When it comes to response rates, direct mail eclipses digital media channels for both house and prospect lists. It’s a wonderfully measurable marketing channel. Furthermore, it allows advertisers to continually test, tweak and improve their direct mail programs. Consequently, direct mail remains a strong channel in marketing.
And, with access to Informed Delivery, savvy marketers can opt to mail marketing pieces that allow their audience to click right into their sites. That’s called moving people from channel to channel. And we all know that when people see a message in multiple marketing channel, that message become more important!
Bottom line, the truth is that the marketing tactics of companies need not be electronic. They just need to be effective. Fort that reason, direct mail certainly fills that bill!
Information for this blog from the USPS Mail Moment Study and the Trust in News Study