Direct Mail: The Love Letter of Marketing

In today’s ever-expanding digital age, businesses are having to adapt quickly to keep up with current trends and practices for marketing to their consumer audiences. While the influx of digital ads, social media, and e-blasts have been significant, direct-mail is still a large player. You might be asking yourself; how do I get my audience to pay attention to a mailer with attention spans so small and with such an emphasis today on high-speed digital content?

What if I told you that it was the way a direct mail piece made someone feel, how it touched them. Here are some stats from a recent USPS survey to back up this claim.

How Direct Mail Makes Consumers Feel

The pandemic has kept many of us at home, which is another great reason a direct mail piece will reach and have a positive affect on a consumer.

• 81% reported that they look forward to checking their mail
• 50% reported trying a new product or service after receiving a direct mail piece
• 67% check their mail daily

Today, consumers perceptions of how brands value them as people over a statistic plays a major role in whether they do business with them or not. As the abundance of marketing channels grow, so do consumer expectations of a tailored and engaging experience.

Love Across all Generations

Personalization means knowing who is on the other side of the mailbox. With each demographic responding differently to direct mail, it is important to know what speaks to each generation.

• Boomers: 83% of this generation value reliability of mail highly making them see direct mail pieces as more trustworthy. This generation also can be considered active spenders
• Gen X: They check their mail 6 days a week and respond well to imagery depicting healthy lifestyle, family, and career goals
• Millennials: 62% say they actually read through direct mail advertisements and 58% feel less worried about security with direct mail over digital environments.
• Gen Z: This generation are the heaviest spenders and routinely are influencers within their households for product recommendations. Utilizing variable data to personalize a direct mail piece to this group will make a noticeable positive impact

Your audience is your heart of marketing strategy, and your direct mail advertisements are the hand-crafted love letters that speak directly and appeal to their values, needs, and wants.