Direct Mail Marketing Statistics
We now live in a world where the majority of our interaction happens online. In fact, the dependency on online channels has increased so much that we no longer go online to take a break from life, but it is the other way around. With the boom of online mediums and the continuous presence of their target audience in such mediums, the marketers were quick to make the digital medium their priority. As a result, now marketing is predominantly focused on the online medium.
Direct mail, which made up for a significant part of offline marketing, was ditched by many industries except for a handful of industries. Today, digital spaces, including social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, are filled with ads or promotions of one kind or another. But, too much of anything is never a good thing, and it is the same for marketing. For many customers, there’s nothing more infuriating than getting bombarded with one ad after the other.
Furthermore, most of the digital marketing campaigns may be hyper-targeted, but they still fail to be personalized the way direct mail is made. You could send a virtual postcard and a physical postcard to your target audience, identical to each other, and yet be sure that the recipient will appreciate the physical one much more than the digital one. The feasible nature of the direct mail or postcard makes it much more personal than the digital ones.
Direct Mail Is Not Dead, It’s Evolving
Many marketers may be overlooking direct mail as a marketing tool. It is not just its ability to generate a response from the recipient but also its significantly higher ROI. When compared to some of the advanced digital marketing campaigns, direct mail still manages to beat many of them in terms of ROI. This is why the industries that never gave up direct mail marketing still hold on to it despite the majority of businesses switching exclusively to digital marketing.
It is also worth noting that direct mail has evolved over the years and the direct mail campaigns now incorporate online mediums for effectively communicating with the target audience. In addition, businesses now have access to advanced direct mail automation tools like PostGrid that allow them to automate the entire process from personalizing to printing to delivering the Mail. In other words, direct mail marketing is not strictly speaking an offline marketing method but a hybrid one that gets the best of both worlds.
This article discusses some of the most intriguing direct mail statistics to help you understand exactly how beneficial direct mail marketing can be for your business. The article does not merely discuss the direct mail statistics but also attempts to explain how it is relevant for businesses and how they can make the most out of it. By helping you better understand the direct mail statistics, we hope to give you an idea of how you can apply them to grow your business’s reach.
22 Statistics About Direct Mail Marketing Campaigns in UK
1. In The Last Ten Years, Advertising Mail Volume Has Increased By 87%, And Expenditure Has Increased By 118%.
The fact that the use of direct mail for advertising has significantly grown in the last ten years implies that more and more businesses finally realize the untapped potential of direct mail. It is also worth noting that the huge mail volume increase over the past ten years has happened during a time where technology has practically taken over all aspects of our life. More companies are now willing to spend more of their capital on advertising mail because of its higher ROI.
2. Advertising Mail Delivers, On Average, £14 Return On Investment For Every £1 Spent.
Many companies are not aware that the direct mail marketing success rate is significantly higher than many of the advanced digital marketing strategies. For every £1 you spend on direct mail marketing, you can potentially get £14 as the return on investment or ROI. As you can see, the ROI in the case of direct mail campaigns is significantly high, and not tapping into such immense potential of direct mail could be the worst mistake a marketer can make.
3. Advertising Mail Grew 42% In The Last Five Years Whilst The Advertising Market As A Whole Grew By Just 16%.
In the last five years, the advertising mail is said to have grown 42%. But, what’s even more interesting about these direct mail statistics is that the advertising market as a whole has grown by only a mere 16%. This implies that the direct mail market is growing faster than the advertising market itself. It is up to the marketer who still hasn’t yet made a move to apply their marketing efforts on direct mail campaigns to get the ball rolling quickly.
4. Consumer Advertising Mail Is Estimated To Generate Nearly £27 Billion Worth Of Business A Year.
According to a DMIS Response Rates Survey, the consumer advertising mail is all set to generate close to £27 billion worth of business in a year. Although this is a 2.3 increase, £27 billion is a mind-boggling amount, especially for business returns from a marketing strategy. Again, it must be reiterated that the sooner that businesses adopt direct mail as part of their marketing efforts, the better the result. Marketers and business owners must ensure that they adopt the direct mail approach before it gets too mainstream. ṭdium, With 60% Of Consumers Ever Responding And 37% Responding In The Last Twelve Months.
Perhaps the most enticing direct mail statistics as far as marketers are concerned is that direct mail is the most responsive advertising medium. Direct mail has a response rate of 60%, which is significantly higher than the new and advanced marketing strategies that are in use today. Most businesses depend predominantly on online mediums for their marketing efforts, and it has become so frequent that many customers don’t even bother to open emails or text messages sent as part of a marketing campaign.
On the other hand, direct mail is not easily ignorable because it is feasible and is generally capable of creating enough curiosity inside the recipient that they will at least open it. Once the direct mail is opened, if you are able to make an offer that the recipient is genuinely interested in, then converting them to customers is not hard. Furthermore, the survey also states that 37% of the target audience responded in the last twelve months, which is a clear indication of the effectiveness of direct mail as a marketing tool.
5. 60% of Consumer Advertising Mails Are Opened, And 40% Are Read.
As we have already discussed above, 60% of direct mail is opened by the recipients, but that’s only half the story because, as we know, conversion does not automatically happen once the Mail is opened. The next step after the recipient is to make them read it, and while this may be hard to do using other mediums, it’s relatively easier using direct mail. With 40% of the direct mail recipients reading its content, direct mail gives you the best chance of communicating with your audience effectively.
6. 56% of Consumers Have Purchased After Receiving Advertising Mail
The Response Rates Survey by DMIS further states that 56% of consumers purchased direct mail. This also means that direct mail works best if the target audience is already familiar with your brand or if they are past customers. It is relatively easier to convert a consumer if they trust your brand, and it also means that you will have a better idea about what the consumer needs based on his previous purchase. The 56% of consumers who have purchased after receiving the direct mail is too big a number to be ignored by any marketer.
7. The Experience of Buying Products Driven by Advertising Mail is a Satisfying One For 82% of Consumers.
Unlike text messages or emails that we don’t even care about opening and receiving, direct mail is somewhat exciting to the recipients. This feeling of satisfaction when we receive and open a direct mail that is personalized for you is further extended to the last stage, where you actually make a purchase. According to the DMIS Response Rates Survey, a whopping 82% of consumers find satisfaction in the experience of buying a product that is driven by direct mail.
8. Business Managers Open 82% of The Advertising Mail They Receive.
Although direct mail might have been replaced in personal communications with modern communication channels, they are still one of the most widely used modes of communication for business correspondence. The most important documents are typically sent via postal Mail, and business managers almost always open the direct mail they receive and do the same for the advertising mails. In fact, according to the DMIS Response Rates Survey, a huge 82% of the direct advertising mails are read by the business managers. This essentially makes direct mail the best mode of communication for B2B target audiences.
Also Read: Best Practices for B2B Direct Mail Marketers9. 36% Say That They Find Mail Very or Quite Useful When Compared to Other Advertising Media.
Compared to other mediums used for advertising, direct mail is often considered more useful than the others. Sending a mail or a text message can often feel more like a nuisance than something useful. But, on the other hand, direct mail, including advertising mails, is often perceived to be useful by the recipients, especially if you are providing them with a value offer relevant to the target audience. Furthermore, direct mail can also be used for pitching new products or services that the audience may find useful in the future. This is probably why 36% of the people find direct mail to be either very useful or quite useful compared to the other advertising media.
10. 32% of Managers Say They Always Open Their Mail, And 30% Say They Open it if it Looks Relevant.
Managers often receive a lot of postal mails, and usually, most of them are opened if found to be relevant by the manager or whoever is in charge of the business communications. The DMIS Response Rates Survey states that at least 32% of managers admitted that they always open their Mail. It is also worth noting that the survey also found that 30% of managers said they would open direct mail only if it looks relevant to their business. This direct mail statistics further reiterates the significance of direct mail in the B2B industry.
11. 36% of Managers Have Responded to an Advertising Mailing in The Last Month And 22% in The Last Six Months.
Response rate is yet another part where the direct mail shines, and the survey carried out by DMIS further found that 36% of managers had responded to the direct mails they received in the last month before the survey. The survey even tracked the response rate of managers for the last six months and found that 22% of them responded to the direct mails. The number may seem relatively small for someone inexperienced, but a marketer would know that these are indeed very promising ones and that they are superior to most of the digital marketing strategies that are widely used today.
12. 12% of The Managers That Responded Spent £200-£500 And 1% Spent £5,000 to £10,000
Just above, we talked about the response rate of managers towards direct mail. Now, a response from the target audience doesn’t necessarily mean that the target will get converted to a customer. However, the target responding to the direct mail is still a big deal and brings you a lot of the way inside the conversion funnel. The survey of DMIS also concluded that 12% of the managers that did respond to the direct mail spent £200-£500. Similarly, 1% of the managers who responded spent £5,000 to £10,000 on marketing using postal Mail.
13. The Average Response Rate For Both B2B and B2C Was 11.6%.
A survey of 3,942 advertising mail campaigns revealed that the response rate for direct mail in B2B and B2C sectors was found to be 11.6%. The survey further found that after excluding campaigns that achieved an exemplary response rate of 30% and more, the average response rate was reduced to merely 6.7%.
So the major takeaway should be that if you manage to get your direct mail campaigns just right, then it is possible for you to achieve exemplary results like a 30% response rate for your direct mail campaigns or even more. Furthermore, even getting an average response rate of close to 11.6% can be extremely beneficial for your business, especially if it is a B2B one considering that they often deal with large capital purchases.
14. The Average Response Rate for B2B Campaigns Was 10.9%.
After closely examining the direct mail campaigns that were exclusively conducted on B2B business, the survey by DMIS revealed that the average response rate for B2B direct mail campaigns was 10.9%. Like the case we discussed above, the survey also considered the average response rate of B2B direct mail campaigns after excluding the exemplary response rates of 30% or more.
After excluding campaigns with a 30% or higher response rate, the average response rate of the B2B campaigns was brought down to 6.2%. Considering that the B2B businesses often deal with big orders and, ergo, big capital, even the low 6.2% response rate could do wonders for the business. Therefore, if you can generate a 10.9% response rate for your direct mail campaigns, you potentially bring in major changes to the business.
15. The Average Response Rate For B2C Campaigns Was 12.1%.
The survey of over 3,942 direct mail campaigns after categorizing the B2C campaigns found that the average response rate for B2C direct mail campaigns was 12.1%. As you can see, the average response rate of B2C direct mail campaigns is slightly higher than the average campaign response rate of B2B, which comes in at 10.9%. This implies that the direct mail campaigns work slightly better for B2C businesses than the B2B, at least in terms of numbers.
Similar to the two cases we have already discussed above, the survey also made it a point to remove the high response rate that ranged anywhere north of 30%, and the new response rate was calculated. The reduced response rate was found to be 7.1% which is again greater than the reduced response rate that we observed in the case of B2B direct mail campaigns which came in at 6.2%.
16. Consumers Aged 45-54 is The Demographic-Group Most Likely to Respond to direct mail Pieces.
The Data & Marketing Association gave the direct mail statistics that the consumers falling in the age gap between 45 and 54 are most likely to respond to direct mail pieces. This is a piece of important information for a marketer to have as it will enable them to better target their direct mail marketing efforts. Furthermore, it is also worth noting that individuals aged between 45 and 54 have a response rate of 14.1%, which is by far the highest average direct mail response rate you can hope for.
17. 18% of B2B Marketers' Budget is Assigned to direct mail Marketing And Print Advertising.
As we have briefly mentioned earlier, B2B marketers or businesses often depend on direct mail for their communication. HubSpot recently revealed that 18% of B2B marketers’ budget is allocated to direct mail and print advertising marketing. This is largely due to the fact that the B2B industry still uses printed ads and catalogues and sends them to its clients/leads. The high response rate of direct mails has stopped the B2B companies from dropping the offline marketing channels entirely.
18. Advertising Mail is Kept in a Household for 17 Days on Average.
According to the data released by Mailmen, the advertising mail is kept in a household for an average of 17 days. This is a piece of very important information that all marketers must be aware of because the mail piece could be passed around the house or just pasted on the refrigerator during this time. The point is that all the family members have plenty of time to look through it, and if the product/service is really something they need, then it is relatively easy to get a conversion.
19. 50.9% of Recipients Say They Find Postcards Useful.
The Data & Marketing Association has said that half the people who receive postcards find them to be useful. The small size of the postcards and their ability to accommodate attractive pictures or infographics make them stand out from the other mailpieces. Furthermore, postcards have a limited area, which means that there won’t be too much boring content stuffed into them, and the concise information is easier for the recipient to read and keep in mind.
20. Only 44% Of People Can Recall A Brand Immediately After Seeing A Digital Ad Compared To 75% Of People Who Receive Direct mail.
According to Marketing Profs, barely half of the people who have interacted with your brand in a digital ad can recall themselves having done that. On the other hand, a whopping 75% of people who receive direct mail can immediately recall the brand. Therefore, establishing trust in the target audience’s minds is easier with the help of direct mail campaigns and reinforces the brand’s credibility in their minds.
21. Direct mail Requires 21% Less Cognitive Effort To Process Than Email.
Canada Post recently released data that revealed that direct mail requires 21% less cognitive effort as compared to the effort taken to read an email. This essentially means that it is easier for the consumers to read a direct mail than an email, even though they may have the same content. This is because the emails sent to the customer can often be distracting as they are bound to have other tabs open, or an ad could pop up randomly from one of those tabs. However, when we come to direct mail, the entire focus of the reader is on that one piece of paper.
22. 57% Of Email Addresses Are Abandoned Because The Users Receive Too Many Marketing Emails.
Marketing Profs claim that more than half of the people who receive too many marketing emails tend to abandon their email addresses. We have all experienced being overwhelmed by the number of marketing mails in our inbox that it is practically impossible to find that one email between all that. At some point, we will get tired of the overflowing inbox that it is just easier to abandon that email and keep it dormant forever.
Conclusion
Direct mail marketing is fast gaining popularity as a marketing channel everywhere around the globe, especially since the widespread use of marketing content on digital channels in our day to day lives. This is clearly evident from the direct mail statistics we have discussed in this article. Direct mail has one of the best response rates as far as marketing strategies are concerned. If optimized well using advanced automation tools like PostGrid, then it has an extremely high ROI potential.
Ever since the automation of direct mail was made possible new opportunities turned up and enabled the marketers to make the most out of their direct mail campaigns. Automation is essential in order to ensure that the direct mail campaign reaches its destination without delays. PostGrid makes this direct mail optimization possible through advanced features that include bulk address verification, personalization, access to superior analytic data and many more features. Effective optimization of direct mail campaigns is not possible without the help of an automated system like PostGrid.
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