Direct mail print ads or mailers are not only effective today, they’re one of the most effective marketing strategies. Even in an increasingly digitally oriented shopping sphere, mailers are an essential part of successful marketing strategies when combined with digital components that can streamline touchpoints on the online shopping journey and increase your brand’s footprint. Direct mail works to engage customers in the sales funnel, establishing your brand and building it with a physical, printed component. Direct mail is effective due to many reasons, according to Mailing.com, including:
- High ROI
The most recent ANA Response Report revealed a 112% ROI for prospect lists with letter mail and 92% ROI for postcards sent to house lists. - Let’s get physical
Multiple neuromarketing studies have shown that humans process physical mail ads more effectively than they do digital ads because we can use all five senses to process something in the physical realm, causing our brain less stress than digital processing, so it can work on things like brand retention, which is much higher for physical ads than for digital ads. - Goes great with digital
Integrates easily for mobile, texting, and social media platforms. Effective for directing consumers to your e-commerce store via QR codes to view, try on, and try out your products. - Personal and trackable
Advancements in personalization technology and variable data printing provide smart strategies for direct mail pieces that can further customize touchpoints on your customers’ journeys. Industry tools, such as Intelligent Mail Barcode and Informed Visibility, provide transparency and valuable metrics for your data analysis. - Sticks around
On your desk or on your fridge, people keep direct mail ads for a little over two weeks. Emails? Gone in a click. - Affordable cost per acquisition
Thanks to production advancements, direct mail gets less expensive when you scale, as opposed to digital and social, which cost more to scale to larger audiences. - Increases brand awareness
Interacts with segments of the population that you can’t reach digitally and reinforces your digital message with a physical message. - High response rates
According to the Association of National Advertisers, response rates average 5% for prospect lists and 9% for house lists.
So, mailers are one of the most effective marketing strategies today when combined with digital components on your customer’s journey. Some statistics marketers will want to know about the effectiveness of direct mail marketing are as follows:
- A recent Lob survey of marketers found that 67% of marketers say direct mail provides the best ROI of any channel they use.
- 62% of consumers reported taking action after reading a direct mail piece
- In the most recent ANA Response Report, marketers reported a 112% ROI for prospect lists using letter mail and a 92% ROI for postcards mailed to house lists
- One marketer survey revealed that simply adding mail improves omnichannel response from 51% to 83%.