Are you venturing into direct mail campaigns for the first time? Perhaps you are looking to improve your return on investment (ROI) from the direct mail you’re already sending to existing and target customers?
Whatever situation you find yourself in, it always pays to make decisions with great data and statistics to back them up.
Here are 10 direct mail statistics that will improve your ROI across your direct mail campaigns and your overall marketing spend.
1. Personalising your direct mail increases open rates by 18%
In general, direct mail has a pretty healthy open rate. As we’ll see as we work through these statistics, direct mail also converts well and does a great job of engaging the recipient.
Given how straightforward it is to personalise direct mail – and the minimal extra costs associated with adding personalisation – why wouldn’t you take this extra step?
Personalising your direct mail can push open rates into the mid-90% range and gives each recipient something unique to them.
If you’re new to direct mail, you might think that personalisation just means putting someone’s name on their mail. However, you can do so much more!
Personalisation can include:
- Sending unique offers on the recipient’s birthday.
- Using pictures on mail relevant to their purchase history or products you know they’re interested in.
- Sending offers tailored to their purchase history or catalogues that highlight their favourite products.
There will typically be millions of different data combinations you can use in a piece of direct mail. What reason do you have to not give everyone you mail to something tailored to them?!
2. Personalised direct mail stays in homes, on average, for a week
The beauty of mail is that you deliver a physical item into a person’s home. Contrast this with an advert in Google that the user might not even notice or forget about the moment they click on something else.
When you personalise your mail, it stays in the recipient’s home for a week, on average.
This means more opportunities to engage and more chances to be convinced by your messaging. What's more, your direct mail may be picked up and read by other people in the house, expanding the reach of your campaign without you spending a penny more!
3. But 27% of consumers keep it in the house for 28 days or longer!
That’s over 1 in 4 pieces of direct mail sitting in homes for around a month!
Imagine a family with a coffee table where they keep things like newspapers, magazines, and pieces of promotional mail. How many times throughout a month might they interact with it? If they have guests in their home, how many more people might see it?
From a “click and you’ve missed it” advert on Google or social media to something that 1 in 4 households will have lying around for a month. We know where we think the value lies here!
4. Using joint mailers can save you up to 10p per item
10p per item doesn’t sound like much money until you think about your annual direct mail volume. Even if you’re sending a relatively low volume of direct mail per year, you still have the potential to save thousands of pounds by using joint mailers.
Joint mailer campaigns see your direct mail sent out as part of a pack with other businesses. Don’t worry – you don’t share a joint mailer with your competitors! You can also continue to personalise your mail and tailor what you send uniquely to each recipient.
All the benefits of direct mail but at a reduced cost!
Learn more about undertaking a joint mailer campaign with Mams.
5. 82% of consumers report a satisfying buying experience when responding to direct mail
Of course, various factors drive this statistic, not just the quality of your direct mail. You can have the best-looking mailer in the world, but if your website works or your customer service stinks, it won't matter!
So what does this have to do with improving your ROI from direct mail?
Well, a satisfied customer tends to turn into a repeat customer. If 80% of the people who buy from you off the back of a direct mail campaign are happy, and you know that a significant proportion of these will subsequently buy from you again. As a result, you can start to spend your marketing budget elsewhere.
6. 86% of people put door drop marketing straight in the bin!
Many people mistake direct mail and door drop marketing for the same thing. They're very different, and it shows in the data!
Whereas direct mail is something you send to a specific individual or an address, door drop marketing lacks any specific information or targeting relating to the recipient. Think takeaway menu through the door or leaflets asking you to join the local weight loss group!
Now, it's easy (and cheap!) to get a few thousand leaflets made up and posted through every door in a postcode area or specific radius. However, as 86% of all door drop material goes straight in the bin, you'd be better off spending a little more on a direct mail campaign and actually sending something targeted to the people you want to read it!
Don’t mistake low costs for value!
7. 70% of people say that direct mail makes them feel valued and teaches them about your company
While it’s up to you to focus on providing your direct mail recipients with information about your company, focus on the first piece of this statistic.
70% of people feel valued by your business just because you sent them something. You might not have even had to send a special offer or dangle an incentive to make them want to buy. Yet, they're already getting a warm and fuzzy feeling about your business!
Just sending something tailored to them, rather than waiting for them to see a general ad online, already makes it more likely they’ll take action.
8. Direct mail drives 70% of recipients to take action online
It doesn't take much of a look around marketing blogs to find people queuing up to bash offline marketing as low value. These same people are pretty quick to demonstrate their lack of understanding of how both online and offline channels can complement one another, too.
We can quickly dispel that myth, thanks to this statistic!
With 70% of direct mail recipients inspired to take an online action, such as visit a website or use an eCommerce discount code, it's clear direct mail is an effective way to drive digital conversions!
9. Direct mail delivers, on average, a 60% response rate, far higher than other advertising channels
You can't imagine what marketers and business owners would give for a click-through rate (CTR) of 60% on their Google adverts. Even brands who enjoy top position organic rankings for their own brand name would be please with such a result!
With response rates of 60%, direct mail is many, many times more effective than other advertising channels, including:
- Google Ads, which has an average CTR of around 3%.
- Facebook Ads, which offer an average CTR of just under 1%.
- Email marketing, which averages around 2.5% CTR.
Of course, these ads have such low engagement metrics because, while there is some degree of targeting, they don't allow the same level of personalisation as a direct mail campaign!
10. You can save 20% versus Royal Mail costs by engaging with Mams!
Have we sold you on the benefits of pursuing a direct mail campaign yet?
If you're going to go down the direct mail route, you might as well enjoy every benefit of doing so! Postage costs are a significant chunk of any direct mail campaign. When you engage Mams for your campaign, you'll save around 20% against the Royal Mail cost were you to do it yourself.
Learn more about the benefits of using Mams to post out your direct mail campaign.
Using direct mail to improve your marketing ROI
Using direct mail isn’t solely about maximising your direct mail ROI. It can influence the ROI you see from your entire marketing budget, especially when harnessed with elements like personalisation and your digital platforms.
Contact us here to discuss your next, maybe your first, direct mail campaign, and put yourself on the path to enjoying a far better return on your marketing spend.
