Keeping Up With the Times: Understanding the Future of Direct Mail

Which is more fun; checking your inbox or checking your mailbox?

With the rise of the Internet age, email, and messaging services, it may seem like regular, old direct mail should be obsolete. But, the future of physical mail is looking brighter than ever before.

Think a direct mail marketing campaign isn’t worth your time anymore? When used correctly, direct mail can be more powerful than any digital ad campaign you could devise.

Don’t quite believe that? Allow us to convince you.

Here’s everything you need to know about the future of direct mail, and how you can use it to your advantage.

The Future of Direct Mail By the Numbers

First, the seemingly bad news; mail volume is declining.

Since 2006, mail volume has dropped over 30%. That may look like a shocking statistic, but don’t write off old-fashioned letters just yet. Let’s take a look at what that number means — and how you can use it to your advantage.

In our digital age, several tasks that once relied on the USPS have found new, and slightly more secure homes online. Things, like paying bills, depositing checks, and ordering goods, have all moved into the digital space.

So, while this shift left consumers with emptier mailboxes as the volume of post sent dropped, it doesn’t mean direct mail as a whole is on the decline.

The drop in volume presents marketers and business owners with a significant opportunity.

Mail Goes On

Studies show that consumers tend to trust physical mail more than email or other digital campaigns.

What makes the Internet so fantastic is also its greatest weakness; everyone can use it.

Because everyone is online, consumers have tens of thousands of online ads thrown at them every single day. This constant bombardment has decreased the emotional value of online ads.

And this, in turn, has made direct mail campaigns that much more valuable. Although the volume of direct mail has decreased, response rates have exploded.

While a social media campaign may return a 1% response rate, direct mail has skyrocketed 173% to a whopping 9% response rate since 2006.

So, if you want to engage with your customers, old fashioned direct mail is the way to go.

Crossing the Streams

So, odds are your customers will respond better to a direct mail campaign than a digital one. Does that mean you should shut down your email and social media campaigns?

Not so fast!

Direct mail and digital marketing are two sides of the same coin. By using one, you can strengthen the other.

With digital marketing, you can track user reactions in real-time to figure out what works with your customers.

You can then use that information to craft direct mail campaigns your customers won’t be able to ignore.

Thanks to the internet, you can track customer data better than ever before. That means you have the tools to customize and tailor your direct mail campaigns to better suit each customer.

Mailing Forward

As we said before, the future of direct mail is looking bright. And, if you want to take advantage of all that it has to offer, we can help.

Contact us for more information about our services, or to start your next direct mail campaign today!