In an increasingly digital world, direct mail seems old and boring.
You wouldn’t drive a horse-drawn carriage to work or use a pager to contact your friends, would you?
of course not.
direct mail feels old fashioned.
But direct mail is still a great way to reach your audience, grab their attention, and connect with them on a personal level.
in 2016, the data & the marketing association reported that the response rate from direct mail customers increased by 43%. Even better, the lead response rate increased by 190% compared to 2015.
Many marketers are in shock.
but the data is undeniable.
direct mail is still effective and its use is a game changer for any serious marketer.
here are 13 reasons direct mail isn’t dead yet.
1. direct mail has a high return on investment
Would it surprise you if I told you that direct mail gives you more bang for your buck than paid search and online display ads?
well, it does.
direct mail has an average return on investment of 29%, which puts the return on investment third behind email and social media marketing in terms of return on investment. social networks are ahead by only 1 percentage point.
That might not seem very high, but when you consider that paid search has an ROI of 23% and online display at 16%, that number looks a lot more attractive.
Curious what your direct mail ROI could turn into? you can go here to calculate it.
That baffling ROI says nothing of direct mail’s response rate, which is 5.3% for mail sent to houses and 2.9% for prospect lists.
Now compare that number to email, which has an average click-through rate of about 2% or 3%. And that’s the click-through rate, not the response rate, which is 0.6%.
despite what the haters say, direct mail still holds its own against other marketing channels.
2. direct mail works great with a digital marketing strategy
all great marketing strategies use multiple channels.
Smart marketers wouldn’t just run facebook ads and give up.
They would consider running instagram ads, running paid search campaigns, and even using search engine optimization to increase traffic.
While you shouldn’t just invest in direct mail, you should consider it part of your marketing bag of tricks.
the 97th floor in utah combined direct mail and digital marketing to increase customer loyalty.
First, they sent a direct mail to all their customers with a Christmas poem and a $20 bill with a scannable code next to it.
Endearing, right? But the beauty is when you flip over the card and look at the left-hand side. There’s a scannable code and a hashtag to use below it.
So what’s up with the $20 bill?
When someone scanned the code with their phone, it sent them to a video encouraging them to spend $20 on someone less fortunate during the holiday season.
The agency then asked everyone to share what they did on Twitter using the hashtag #20helps.
Combining direct mail with smart digital marketing techniques increases the personality of the message you’re sending.
When you give people something to do with your direct mail, like watch a video, take a selfie, or spend $20, few people resist the temptation to participate.
3. direct mail is easier to target than you think
On social media, targeting your audience is very simple. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter offer tons of targeting tools based on interests, demographics, and even behavior.
But what about sending the right message to your customers using direct mail?
Can you target your ideal customer well enough to be worth your time and money?
yes, you can.
At usps.com, you can use their all-door direct mail tool to send mail to different customers in different areas.
Start by entering your city and state or zip code.
Hit enter. Select up to five zip codes near your location.
Then click continue. You’ll see a map that looks something like this.
When you hover your mouse over a route, the tool will show you the number of residents, number of businesses, age range, average household size, and average household income of that zone.
it even calculates the approximate cost of postage to send a mail to that route.
As long as you already know who your target audience is, direct mail can be highly specific.
4. direct mail is trackable (yes, really)
Technically, there is no automatic way to track direct mail response rates, return on investment, and overall engagement. Unlike a Facebook ad, you can’t track where the user went from your ad to your product page.
Maybe a customer visits your website after seeing your direct mail article. while this person would count as a lead from your website, they should be a lead from your direct mail campaign.
but wait, I just said that direct mail is trackable.
It’s a bit more complex, but direct mail tracking is totally doable.
here are some tricks you can use to find out how well your direct mail campaign is performing.
first, if your goal is to get someone to call you, choose a unique phone number for that direct mail campaign.
Similar to this, if your goal is to get people to visit your website, you can create a unique landing page to track your results.
When people visit or click on your landing page, you know they came from that direct mail campaign.
Whatever CTA you choose for your direct mail campaign, use a unique tracking device, whether that is a phone number or website URL.
then you can count them as a lead from your direct mail campaign.
5. direct mail is less common
at first glance, this may not seem like a good thing.
perhaps fewer marketers use direct mail because it doesn’t work.
As I’ve already shown you with the stats above, that’s not the case.
The answer is simple. Since everyone is familiar with digital marketing, it’s easier to start getting results than a direct mail campaign. so fewer people do it.
In 2016, there was a 2% decrease in direct mail delivery from the previous year.
why is it good for your direct mail campaign?
When fewer marketers send emails, your article has a better chance of standing out.
Think about how difficult it is nowadays to position yourself in google. if I type “how to send amazing direct mail”, google only shows me 10 results out of 6,470,000 possible answers.
In other words, the internet is full of marketing messages.
but mailboxes are not.
And that’s why direct mail still works so well in this digital age. Because it requires a bit more work than other digital marketing strategies, it’s less common and more effective.
6. direct mail gives a romantic feel
Like hot baths and candlelit dinners, direct mail has become romanticized in our culture.
think about it. when you receive a handwritten letter from someone, what do you do?
you get excited. someone cares enough to write you a letter. It’s not very often that you get something like this.
what are you doing now?
I bet you sit and read every word of that letter. But not only you love receiving letters.
73% of people said they prefer direct mail as an advertising method.
And, 59% of US consumers say they actually enjoy getting mail from brands.
since people get less direct mail, each email is more exciting.
especially if your direct mail is handwritten. even if you add your signature.
In a world where everything is typed by machine, handwriting on a direct mail piece is a touch recipients won’t be able to ignore.
look at this example of larger pockets.
It’s more like getting a personal letter from a friend than a marketing message from a business.
7. direct mail is tangible
Imagine this. receive a coupon in the mail for $10 off your next meal at your favorite local pub.
If you’re like me, you set the coupon on your refrigerator for future use.
then, you pretty much forget about it. for the next few weeks, the coupon sits in your kitchen with other unused direct mail offers.
But one night, your friend calls you and wants to watch the big game at a restaurant. while trying to decide where to go, you remember, “oh! I have a coupon for our favorite pub.”
and at that moment, the coupon decides for you.
even though the coupon is only $10.
You could do the same with a haircut business.
Or an ecommerce store. No brick-and-mortar location needed.
Since direct mail is tangible, it sticks around. It clutters physical space.
email is easy to forget because it’s just a number on a screen.
As a general rule of thumb, about two percent of online ads grab our attention every day. In other words, only about 100 out of 5,000 ad exposures have a significant impact on consumers.
but direct mail is unavoidable.
About 66% of people have bought a product through direct mail.
If your direct mail piece has a special offer, most people will save it for future use and won’t be able to forget about it.
8. direct mail gets all the attention
some fear accompanies direct mail.
what do I mean?
When you open the mailbox and take out a small stack of letters, you won’t throw any of the mail out without looking at it first.
You don’t immediately know which mail needs your attention and which ones you don’t. there is the fear of missing something important.
So you don’t want to throw away the mail without checking it out first.
right?
When you receive an email, you probably have at least four (or forty) tabs open on your computer. there are a bunch of notifications ringing on your phone and laptop.
The average American consumer is exposed to thousands of ads per day. In fact, it’s not unusual for the average consumer to see more than three hundred ads, of various types, within the first hour of waking up.
But when you get a piece of direct mail, you’re home from work with some extra time to look at each letter.
direct mail naturally attracts more attention because there are fewer distractions when people see it.
9. direct mail increases brand awareness
As I showed you, direct mail is tangible, which means it has the potential to linger in someone’s home for a long time.
For this reason, the constant sending of emails increases the notoriety of your brand.
how?
Consider this piece of direct mail from le tote.
The front has the value proposition and offer, while the back demonstrates how easy it makes your life.
Since this postcard offers a coupon, there’s a good chance that the recipients will save it for a later date.
but what if they don’t use it later?
what if they see it, read it, and then throw it away?
Did you just lose money on a bad direct mail campaign?
not necessarily.
Sure, your recipients may not be interested in your offer right now. but they saw your logo, your brand and what you do.
If there comes a day when they want your product, they may come to your website and buy something from you.
Before the direct mail piece, there was no chance of that because they didn’t know who you were, that’s the power of branding.
and that’s a win for any seller.
10. direct mail is for all age groups.
I find this to be one of the most compelling reasons direct mail isn’t dead yet.
If you send email, use facebook ads, or do any kind of online marketing, your chances of reaching a larger demographic aren’t very high.
About 62% of people over the age of 70 use a smartphone. that percentage decreases to 17% as age increases.
Only 46% of American adults over the age of 65 use Facebook. And while that number is rising, that still means more than half of older adults can’t be targeted by the world’s largest social media platform.
In fact, 33% of older adults don’t even access the internet.
In contrast, direct mail reaches everyone, young and old alike. everyone checks the mail, and that’s why your postcards and coupons can turn just about anyone into a customer.
11. direct mail is creative
When it comes to direct mail and creativity, the sky is the limit.
Because direct mail is a physical product, sending material that stands out is just a matter of having fun with it.
This adt example is a bit controversial in its execution. but it’s a great example of creative direct mail marketing in action.
Here’s how it works.
A letter-sized card is slipped under the recipient’s front door. but the card is carefully designed to appear in a box once it’s under the door.
On the box, it reads, “breaking into your apartment is easier than you think.”
When someone sees it, they can immediately think, “what…somebody broke into my house?”
adt highlighted a problem in action. what is a good solution? get a security system adt.
On the less controversial side of things, a gym in Brazil had problems with members quitting because they didn’t see immediate results from their workouts.
As a reminder that getting results requires consistent time in the gym, they sent their members calendars illustrating the gradual progress they’d see if they stuck with the program.
Coming up with flashy ideas is not easy. If you’re not naturally creative, then talk with someone who is.
If a security systems brand and a gym can feature interesting direct mail pieces, chances are you can too.
may just need to think a little more.
12. direct mail is multisensory
With digital marketing, it is impossible to touch all the senses and difficult to touch more than two.
The five senses are touch, hearing, sight, taste and smell.
at most, a digital campaign can only focus on sight and sound. By making a digital ad interactive, some savvy marketers can appeal to someone’s sense of touch. but even that experience is not the same.
By making a digital ad interactive, some savvy marketers can engage someone’s sense of touch. but even that experience is not the same.
everyone experiences the world through their senses. direct mail can take advantage of all 5.
george patterson y&r melbourne sent a cardboard box with two knobs and a bag of electronic components. included everything needed to build an fm radio.
everything except one thing: instructions.
The mail piece went out to college engineering students.
When they set up the radio, an ad was played offering the student a fast track to an exciting military career.
talk about multisensory. this cardboard radio harnessed three senses, and some might argue 4 with the smell of cardboard.
Consider this one about kitkat.
This direct mail piece acts as if you ordered a KitKat to your mailbox, implying that it was too “chunky” to arrive at your home.
Although technically there are only two senses involved, sight and touch, this piece does a good job of including taste by emphasizing the “chunky” look of a kitkat.
Not to mention completely interactive as you walk into the store.
Because humans experience the world through five senses, the more you trigger your direct mail, the more likely recipients are to engage with your message.
13. direct mail is memorable
Ads now flash before our eyes at breakneck speeds. every time we search, stream, watch, read, scroll, click or swipe, we are bombarded by ads.
but direct mail stands out.
Imagine putting together a radio delivered to your mailbox.
You may get a box near your door that says, “breaking into your home is easy.”
Or you get a funny email from kitkat saying your candy bar was too “chunky” to make it to your house.
or you get a small turntable in the mail.
If you’re like most people, you’ll tell your friends about these memorable pieces of marketing genius.
Because direct mail is tangible and endlessly creative, it stays with your audience.
As long as you take the time to put together an amazing direct mail piece, your audience won’t quickly forget the message you sent.
direct mail frequently asked questions
why direct mail is not dead conclusion
The expansion of digital marketing has only improved the return on investment for direct mail campaigns.
If you’re wondering why direct mail should have a place in your marketing tool belt, the above 13 reasons are enough answers.
Direct mail campaigns offer high ROI and even higher ROI than paid ads. they can work effectively in a campaign on their own or in conjunction with a digital marketing campaign.
You can use direct mail to target the right customers at the right time. and it’s easy to track the results of each campaign you run.
With direct mail becoming less common, there’s less noise. you can grab all the attention of your customers with your romantic appeal.
Because direct mail is more likely to be read, it increases your brand awareness, even if the first letter is unsuccessful.
Unlike digital campaigns, direct mail has greater appeal to all age groups.
Because direct mail is a physical product, it leaves room for creativity. therefore, you can appeal to more of the senses, leaving a lasting and memorable impact on your customer.
In the end, direct mail is powerful because it’s different from the digital way of doing things.
I get hundreds of emails every week. but I receive a fraction of that number in the form of letters in my mailbox.
To stand out in a world where everything has gone electronic, consider complementing your digital marketing strategy with a direct mail campaign.
It’s a personal touch that’s missing in a hectic world.
and as every great salesperson knows, being personal pays off.
what is the main reason you think direct mail is still going strong?