With an ever-greater dependency on technology in our lives and easier and more affordable access to digital marketing practices, it’s easy to understand why businesses come to shy away from direct mail practices. Why go for the more expensive old-fashioned method of marketing, when your customer is spending more and time in front of their mobile and laptop screens? Surely email, Facebook ads, and PPC have much higher ROI? Well, maybe, or maybe not…
Look at these direct mail statistics
The only way to really decide whether direct mail marketing is still effective in 2017 is to look at the numbers. Here are some results from industry analysis across 2016.
- Direct mail response rates hit 5.3% for house lists and 2.9% for prospect lists. In comparison, no form of digital marketing managed to reach a 1% response rate.
- Overall ROI for direct mail is, on average, 27%. This places it third, behind email and social media, but ahead of online display and paid search.
- More than 50% of companies in the following sectors, used direct mail in 2016: retail, financial services, travel, publishing & media, and consumer packaged goods.
- 80% of consumers say they will open all their mail that is delivered (including what they deem ‘junk’ mail).
- Direct mail sent within 24 hours to prospects who abandoned their online checkout can have a conversion of 40%, compared to 16% when using email.
- 41% of people aged over 65 don’t use digital marketing at all.
What does this all mean?
You can use the above stats to realise two things. First, it shows that direct mail marketing still plays a large role in the marketing campaigns for a considerable number of businesses. Secondly, it shows that people still enjoy receiving mail, and it does convert. This begs the question as to why do so many people consider it a dying method?
Well, the simple answer is that businesses have got greedy with savings and would rather dispatch thousands of emails to their database of prospects rather than send targeted direct mail, which is more likely to convert. Here are some of the crucial benefits that direct mail still offers in 2017:
Direct mail is personalised
There are many ways to tailor each individual part of mail sent and to make it feel unique to the recipient.
Direct mail allows maximum creativity
You’re not limited to sending faceless text images but can instead send samples and quirkily shaped parcels that will get people’s attention.
Direct Mail is tangible
Never underestimate the power of actually getting your product and message into someone’s hands, rather than just on their computer screen.
Direct Mail can complement digital
Direct mail isn’t an exclusive marketing avenue; instead, you can introduce your business online, then really build a relationship with the consumer through direct mail.
Direct Mail is effective for all audiences
As mentioned, there are plenty of people who still don’t access digital media and much prefer traditional forms of communication, so make use of it!
What’s the next step?
It comes down to finding a healthy balance between direct mail and digital marketing activities. There’s no reason you can’t segment certain audiences who you know react more effectively to direct mail as opposed to digital methods. To help analyse your strategy and reach more customers, it could be best to speak to a direct mail marketing company, just like us, who have years of industry experience and know what how your clients want to be reached. To find out more, and to help make direct mail a part of your diverse marketing strategy, check out our direct mail services.
Calderstone
To maximise the effectiveness of your direct marketing strategy you need to speak to the experts… and you’re in the right place!
To find out more about how we can help with your direct mail strategy and printing requirements please contact us or call 020 8391 3001. We’d be delighted to help you.