Why Marketing Spend Is Returning To Direct Mail

Why Marketing Spend is Returning to Direct Mail

As digital advertising penetration continues to increase, direct mail provides a powerful complement to help businesses target their ideal consumers. Direct mail remains a resilient and valuable medium due to its evolving nature, including the increased use of data and measurement and delivery of consistent ROI. Advertisers are taking notice and shifting budgets accordingly, with traditional advertising expected to witness a 12% increase in spend over the next year.

Direct mail’s ability to reach a wide range of consumers, along with favorable trends emerging out of a global pandemic, suggest the medium has considerable staying power as a part of business’ marketing strategy.

Direct mail is uniquely reaching consumers with changing work / life habits following the COVID-19 pandemic. Consumers are reporting that as they engage with content, a personalized piece of mail attracts attention and drives purchasing decisions. As consumers are bombarded with thousands of digital ads each day, direct mail marketing stands out. American households look forward to receiving and holding onto advertising received by mail.

In 2017, the USPS launched the Informed Delivery feature to a majority of US households, allowing them to digitally preview incoming mail. This coordinated double impression allows users to interact with digital content associated with their mailers and expands the reach of business’ mailing campaigns. With over 30 million registered users, Informed Delivery has the ability to increase website traffic by 39% and improve ROI by 36%.

As digital advertising grows in prevalence, its drawbacks increase alongside its saturation. Decreasing consumer attention lowers the “shelf life” of online ads in the consumer’s mind, while ad blocking lowers the effectiveness of such ads even further. Direct mail, with its more personalized feel, is more likely to drive consumers to action.

Direct mail allows digital-first brands to have an additional touchpoint with potential customers and gain actionable insights into their behavior. Marketers can identify online visitors and send them a mailing to encourage conversion. This method has shown to increase website traffic by 65% and conversions by 47%.

Further, unique direct mail capabilities such as QR codes and personalized URLs allow for a seamless customer journey with effective attribution tracking.

Click below to read the report from the Media & Entertainment Group.