Direct Mail is Back and It Isn’t Going Away
It seems that direct mail has become the whipping boy of the year. It’s been blamed for the demise of our forests, for clogging up our mailboxes and then our landfills, for artificially propping up our failing postal service, and for intruding on our privacy. Whew! With a reputation like that, it’s amazing that direct mail hasn’t been banned by our local, state and federal governments.
But that hasn’t happened for two reasons:
- Marketers are realizing that targeted direct mail still plays an important role in reaching and affecting decision-makers, especially when combined with other marketing channels, and
- Consumers say that they prefer to learn about product choices via direct mail
Targeted direct mail is cost-effective in reaching and influencing large audiences. It is tangible, tactile and measureable. It can be personalized and integrated as a targeted campaign as part of a contact strategy. Direct mail can be used equally effectively by large, regular mail users as well as small, occasional ones. Today’s sophisticated database technology allows you to zero in on segments where direct mail pays off, and let mailers also better determine the most cost-effective number of mail efforts and their timing.
In Epsilon Targeting’s recently released “2011 Channel Preference Study”, direct mail continues to deliver as consumers’ preferred means of receiving marketing messages. Despite direct mail’s reputation for being “old school” or expensive, it is the top choice of US and Canadian consumers for receiving brand communications in almost every product and service category, even among 18-34 year olds.
Direct mail is thought to be more trustworthy than email; it receives more attention than email; 1/3 of respondents don’t find ads on social media helpful or trustworthy; and 60% said they enjoy receiving their postal mail.
One key finding of this study is that 30% of consumers said they’re receiving more mail that interests them compared to a year ago. This means that targeted marketing is working – direct mail will grow in importance over the next decade by providing targeted information based on the desires of the individual consumer. Using personalized direct mail
as part of a targeted multi-channel marketing strategy will allow marketers to answer some of direct mail’s ‘objections’ while providing information that consumers want to receive and will act on.