Great news for direct mail marketers and sellers: ROI for direct mailing campaigns is on the rise! Here’s what you need to know.

Why the ROI for Direct Mailing Campaigns is Improving

Why?

Consumers’ Trust in Digital is Waning

According to research from RRD, consumers’ trust in digital marketing is declining.

“Complicated market conditions – e.g., growing economic uncertainty, increasing privacy concerns and consumer malaise toward marketers’ digital strategies…are driving the resurgence of ‘tried and true’ marketing channels.”

Not only are consumers distrusting of digital ad types, they’re tired of them. Consumers get bombarded with digital ads every day when they try to do anything on their mobile devices or computers. Fewer brands are investing in traditional ads, such as direct mailing campaigns. Therefore, they tend to be a breath of fresh air for potential customers.

Direct Mail Ads are Super Effective

Direct mailing campaigns have been getting results to the brands that use them for years. According to a previous SalesFuel blog post based on research from Lob:

“72% of consumers open direct mail immediately upon receipt (or as soon as they retrieve their mail)
85% read all their mail at some point
62% of consumers have been inspired to take action by these ads”

Not only do direct mail ads get noticed by consumers, they take action because of these ads. Lob says that direct mail ads inspire consumers to:

Visit the advertised brand’s website (43% of consumers take this action)
Buy an advertised product or sign up for an advertised service (31%)
Visit the advertised brand’s retail locations (31%)
Conduct an online search on the advertised brand, product or service (28%)
Look up reviews about the advertised product or service (26%)

Direct mail ads may be a traditional form of marketing, but they inspire recipients to take action digitally. And, most importantly, they’re an excellent first step in the sales process.

Direct Mail Deserves (and is Getting) a Bigger Slice of Marketing Budgets

Now, the “tried and true” marketing channels marketers are turning to don’t always mean traditional ad media. The best ad media type depends in great deal on who your client’s target audience is. Discover which ad media types influenced the highest audience percentage to take action on AudienceSCAN on AdMall.

But direct mailing campaigns should definitely be a part of your client’s omnichannel marketing strategy this year. Why?

Reason 1: You’ll be giving your client’s competition sole control of an extremely influential ad medium. 74% of marketers say direct mail offer the best ROI, response rates and conversions of all ad media channels. 75% of marketers say that they’re planning on reallocating portions of their marketing budgets to direct mail, says RRD.

Reason 2: Consumers actually enjoy receiving direct mail ads. RRD says that 42% of consumers say that their interest in receiving direct mail has increased since last year.

Reason 3: It’s not just older generations of consumers who enjoy receiving direct mail ads. In fact, RRD says that younger generations are the ones most likely to take an interest in direct mailing campaigns. Overall, 61% of consumers ages 18–26 are more interested in receiving direct mail than they were last year. Therefore, this age group is the most excited to get these ads.

RRD says that consumers enjoy receiving direct mail ads because consumers:

Like having physical copies of information to reference: 47% of consumers agree
Think that direct mail ads are easier to remember than email ads: 30%
Have fun opening direct mail ads: 28%

If your clients are looking for a way to increase advertising ROI, they need to try direct mailing campaigns.

Photo by: Mick Haupt