If your company was established in the past decade, it’s possible that digital marketing has been the only paid advertising you’ve done. But should you be including direct marketing via mail as a part of a comprehensive marketing strategy?
According to the “Sequel Direct Mail Trends Report: Q4 2021,” the use of direct mail has increased year-over-year by 43%. Furthermore, “prospect response rates more than doubled – a 190% increase. It’s a trend that’s fueling the popularity of direct mail.”
Reasons for the Resurgence
But why the resurgence? If you think Millennials might have something to do with it, you’re right. According to the report, roughly 90% of Millennials see direct mail as more reliable than email. Also, Gen Xers say they believe direct marketing via mail is more personal than digital content and they are more likely to read it than email.
There are also annoying yet persistent privacy foibles that hamper digital marketing. Privacy concerns also factor into why direct marketing via mail has come back so big. Companies are listening and have given “snail mail” another try, shifting from the inbox to the mailbox.
“Snail Mail” Advantages
The digital world moves at breakneck speed, which means your marketing attempts via social media feeds stand a high probability of going unseen if your target audience takes any kind of a break from their screen(s). With direct mail, it only goes away when it’s recycled, which means your target audience reads it at their leisure.
Did you know the average person receives more than 100 emails a day and sees around 60 ad displays over that same period of time? There are many opportunities there to delete and ignore. Conversely, most people only receive two pieces of mail by post.
Response Rates
Yes, it’s important to personalize your outgoing content so it has value to your target audience, but if you don’t send it through the right channels, it’s not going to connect with anyone. Direct mail gets up to nine times more responses than email. Where email sees around a 1% response rate, direct mail hovers between 5% and 9%. Does that mean email marketing is not effective? No, it means utilizing both as a part of your overall marketing strategy gives you better results than one or the other alone.
Looking to get more engagement with your marketing content? Contact us at SJC and we can manage your entire direct marketing strategy. From digital to direct mail, we create a comprehensive, multi-channel strategy to build brand awareness and measurable growth.