Direct Mail is Back!
Actually, direct mail never left. Direct mail is one of the fastest growing segments of the printing industry and the pundits who cried death to direct mail are now backtracking. These were mostly folks that thought they could bypass mailing in favor of electronic communications. But alas, email is losing steam and digital marketing only goes so far.
Millennials love direct mail and the stats are out there.
• 84% of Millennials take the time to look through their mail1
• 64% of Millennials would rather scan for useful information in their mailbox, than their inbox1
• 90% of Millennials think direct mail advertising is reliable2
• 87% of Millennials like receiving direct mail2
This is important because Millennials have become the largest demographic in the workforce. And according to a Quad Graphics study, Millennials are even MORE engaged with their direct mail than their non-millennial brethren. According to the study, half of Millennials ignore digital ads while only 15% of Millennials ignore direct mail. In the digitally engaged world of the Millennial, direct mail breaks up the monotony because it is different.
Direct mail responds
It's widely known that direct mail beats the pants off email when it comes to generating a response. One reason is no one has a junk mailbox at the end of their driveway. Direct mail gets through and the recipient most likely will look at each piece to determine its value and their next step with it. Getting eyeballs on your marketing message is a huge chunk of the battle. No one ever responded to a marketing message they didn’t get.
Direct mail is tactile. It’s portable. It lays on our counter top until we engage with it. We hold on to it because we might be near the store to redeem the offer. We are not likely to dig through our junk email folder to find an offer. Once it’s junk or we delete it, it’s most likely gone forever. Out of sight, out of mind.
Direct mail is profitable
Done right, direct mail is the least expensive, most trackable method of direct marketing. Marketers are moving beyond a focus on cost per piece to a renewed focus on profitability of the campaign, increased sales, and increment lift. Email is always less expensive on a cost per piece basis, but almost always comes in second place for profitability. I don’t want to sound like email has no place in the marketing mix. It does. The reality is, email and direct mail both have their place and often are best used together in a multi touchpoint campaign.
Baesman Group produces over 150,000,000 pieces of direct mail per year and we also send over 150,000,000 emails on behalf of our clients each year. Give us a call and we can help you develop the right strategy, the right channels, the right offer and the right audience to meet your marketing goals.
1. USPS Mail Moments: 2016 Review, March 2016
2. Felicia Savage, “Don’t Hide in the Bushes: How to use Direct Mail to Target Millennials,”PERQ, October 28, 2013