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10 Winning Direct Mail Marketing Statistics

If you’re striving to maintain touch points with customers, get messaging out in a non-intrusive manner, and have the assurance that your marketing dollars are well spent (Isn’t that what we all want?), look no further than direct mail. You may think direct mail can’t keep up with digital forms of marketing, but the numbers tell a different story. Here are ten powerful direct mail marketing statistics to remind you why direct mail marketing is worth the investment:

1

Direct mail is resilient – industry revenues decreased by only 4% in 2020 and rebounded by 10% in 2021. (Statista)

Despite the calls that direct mail is dead, it continues to survive shifts in the economy and remains a favored marketing medium for the real estate, franchise, home services, and healthcare industries. It pairs well with other forms of marketing and even technology, further strengthening its relevance.

 

2

The average worker receives 170 emails weekly, and only 7 direct mail pieces a week.  (Statista)

Consumers find direct mail to be a welcome alternative to the floods of marketing emails they receive in their inboxes each day. They are less saturated by physical mail than email, meaning they are more likely to read your marketing message if it’s sent to their home’s mailbox rather than their inbox.

 

3

Direct mail has a high return on investment (ROI), with a median ROI of 29%, and can be more cost-effective than other marketing channels. The average cost per acquisition for direct mail is $19, which is lower than for paid search and online display advertising. (Direct Marketing Association)

When you’re spending your limited marketing dollars this year, make sure your investment pays off with tried-and-true strategies like running a direct mail campaign. Direct mail’s high return on investment and lower cost per lead acquisition make it a budget-friendly method to spread the word to your prospects (with great payoff.)

 

4

42% of recipients read or scan direct mail pieces. (USPS)

Compared to email open rates, which average around 19%, the percentage of recipients who interact with direct mail is more than double. Since direct mail is received less frequently than marketing emails, more consumers may take the time to scan and consider the messaging on direct mail pieces.

 

5

The average lifespan of a direct mail piece is 17 days, compared to just a few seconds for an email. (Direct Marketing Association)

Have you ever kept a piece of mail laying around on the counter for a few days? This isn’t done (not to mention impossible!) with email. Consumers will rarely revisit an email, because more flood their inboxes each day, but they’ll likely return to the stack of mail on the counter before it’s thrown away.

 

6

Personalization can increase response rates for direct mail campaigns by up to 50% (Direct Marketing Association), and targeted direct mail campaigns generate 10 times more responses than non-targeted campaigns. (Data & Marketing Association)

And that’s just if you target customers one-to-one! You can up response rates 135% by adding a person’s name and using full color, and 500% by using a person’s name, using full color, and adding more sophisticated database information. 70% of Americans believe direct mail is more personal than email, (Direct Marketing Association), so taking the time to tailor your pieces to each recipient already builds off of positive consumer perceptions.

 

7

Direct mail is more memorable than digital media. Direct mail requires 21% less cognitive effort to process and elicits a 20% higher motivation response than digital media. (Canada Post)

Can you remember how many marketing emails you got yesterday, or what a particular email looked like? Possibly. Can you remember a particularly interesting piece of mail you got recently? That’s more likely. Direct mail (especially if you make it impactful) is memorable because it engages more senses than digital media. The recipient isn’t just looking at your message, they’re touching it, too.

 

8

Direct mail can drive online traffic, with 60% of direct mail recipients visiting a website promoted by a direct mail piece. (USPS)

Perhaps because it is more memorable, direct mail drives consumers to action. According to a further research survey by USPS, direct mail can prompt in-person activity from consumers as well. Almost half (48%) of respondents, running the gamut from Baby Boomers to Gen Z, tried a new service, product, or establishment after receiving direct mail.

 

9

Direct mail is a top-performing marketing channel, with an average response rate of 5.3%.

Direct mail’s response rate dwarfs that of other channels, such as email, paid search, social media, and online display, which have response rates of 1% of less. The average response rate for direct mail to a house list (existing customers) is even higher, at around 9%. (Direct Marketing Association)

 

10

Direct mail can be used to complement other marketing channels. Combining direct mail with email, social media, and other digital channels can increase response rates by up to 35%. (Epsilon)

Direct mail is fundamentally simple, meaning it’s easy to incorporate it into a multichannel campaign, such as timing a mailing to go out at the same time as a series of social media posts. The more ways a potential customer interacts with your brand, the more likely it is that they’ll reach out. It’s also easy to pair direct mail with marketing tech, such as automation. Here are four easy ways to do so.

 

Xpressdocs – Your Direct Mail Marketing Experts

With over 20 years of experience partnering with companies to facilitate their direct mail marketing, we have the tools to help your campaigns achieve new levels of success. We offer a variety of tools and services, from Automated Property Marketing to our customizable branded platforms, to streamline your direct mail marketing and help you achieve your goal ROI. To learn more about automating your direct mail, check out our solution, AmazingMail®, which won best content personalization software in 2022. For more reasons to incorporate direct mail into your marketing strategy, check out The 5 Biggest Myths About Direct Mail on the Xpressdocs blog.

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