Debunking 4 Myths About Consumer Interactions with Direct Mail

Written by Ben Barker | Oct 10, 2019 2:00:00 PM

With 23.14 billion connected devices in use worldwide, people are constantly exposed to their desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones, and other smart devices. The constant immersion provides marketers a vast landscape for capturing consumer attention through Digital advertising.

Because consumers have 24/7 access to the Internet, email and social media, it’s become assumed that Digital Marketing has a steep advantage over Direct Mail when it comes to capturing interest and engagement via advertising.

Looking further into statistics, though, what we’ve come to accept as fact regarding consumer interactions with Direct Mail versus Digital Advertising is actually myth.

These are the top 4 Direct Mail Myths, debunked:

Myth 1: People Don’t Read the Mail Anymore

Since consumers have the ability to manage basically every aspect of their life online and through email, it’s become assumed that the majority of people don’t engage with Direct Mail.

These statistics from the USPS prove that is clearly not the case:

98% of consumers bring in their mail the day it is delivered
72% of these consumers bring mail in as soon as possible
85% of consumers sort through and read selected pieces of mail every day

Myth 2: Consumers Prefer Digital Advertising over Direct Mail

You may be thinking that while the previous statistics prove people still collect and open their Direct Mail, Digital advertising still holds the advantage as the preferred method of communication among consumers.

Instead, Marketing Sherpa shows us that Digital saturation and inbox fatigue push consumer attitudes in favor of Direct Mail:

76% of consumers trust Direct Mail over Digital advertising channels
67% of consumers say Direct Mail is more personal
Shoppers who receive promotional mailings recall the brand 75% of the time

In addition, Direct Mail has a much larger window of opportunity to engage past and prospective buyers:

Direct Mail has an average lifespan of 17 days
Email has an average lifespan of 2 seconds

Myth 3: Direct Mail Campaigns Are Too Difficult to Execute at Scale

We’ve established that consumers engage and prefer Direct advertising versus Digital, but many would still argue Digital drives greater value overall because technology allows brands to collect, segment and apply massive amounts of consumer data to optimized Digital ad campaigns at scale.

Without a centralized, automated technology, planning and executing Direct Mail campaigns is complex and requires heavy reliance on internal and external resources. This leads to Average Cycle Times (ACT) or time to market for complex, high-volume Direct Mail campaigns taking up to nine months. It also leads to infrequent testing, low levels of personalization and format fatigue.

Luckily, new Direct Marketing technology IS here, and industry innovators are leveraging it for increased audience segmentation, campaign automation and hyper-personalization of content at scale. Automation and machine learning provide marketers the opportunity to conduct progressive multivariate tests based on offer, messaging, cadence and formats, and forecast engagement through predictive analytics.

With technology and artificial intelligence bearing the burden of data hygiene, marketing operations, personalization, supply chain management, proofing and quality control, ACTs can drop to 30 days or shorter. Direct marketers can now rely on a centralized platform to leverage hyper-personalization and deploy higher-frequency, lower-volume campaigns to highly targeted audiences.

Myth 4: Only Digital Can Deliver Interactive Customer Experiences

Many perceive Direct Mail and print as static, ink-on-paper advertising that allows little room for delivering creative, interactive customer experiences.

Again, that could not be further from the truth, as savvy marketers and brands are leveraging technological advances such as Near-field communication (NFC) chips, video mailers and Augmented Reality (AR) to surprise their audience and motivate them for action.

Embedding NFC chips in print materials allows marketers to expand the amount of information being shared as well as the interaction consumers have with it. Marketers can change the content an NFC chip is being linked to at any time, making campaigns more flexible and easily adaptable based on personalization data.

Another benefit of using NFC chips are their geolocation capabilities. Customers can communicate their location with you once they tap their mobile phone or smart device on a tag, allowing your business to collect and analyze information about customers, users and future prospects.

Equipping mail with video increases people’s understanding of a product or service by 74% and 48% of people retain video-enabled Direct Mail for future reference. Organizations working in all industries are utilizing video mailers to educate and get consumers excited about new products, provide education on investment strategies, for example, and run brief demos.

The New Yorker turned to digital technology to enhance the in-home experience for its subscribers by using AR on its front-and-back cover to depict recognizable New York City features, such as the skyline and subway, to tell the story of the bustling metropolis.

To learn about how brands such as Zappos, Porsche and The New Yorker have created interactive in-home experiences to increase response rates, take a look at Llamas, LEDs & AR.

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