Try to image for a minute a world without birthday cards from distant relatives or even worse – a world without faithful Amazon deliveries right to your door. Or, for that matter, a world without grocery deliveries right to your door. Yikes!
Maybe it wouldn’t really be the end of everything, but I think we can all agree that a world without mail would be a fundamentally different world than the one we currently inhabit. After all, mail has been a prime form of communication for an exceptionally long time. The impact on our understanding of history alone would be devastating.
With this in mind, a recurring myth that I’ve read about the print industry is that “print is dead” or “dying”. If anything, print seems to be chugging along just as well as ever, even if the landscape has changed a little.
People Love Mail
The fact of the matter is that most (roughly 98%) of consumers check their mail daily. Some smart stores even offer monthly newsletters in the mail still – I can even tell you exactly which ones I receive them from: Trader Joe’s, The Paper Source, and Ulta Beauty. The fact that I can casually sit here typing at my job and tell you which newsletters are going to come to my apartment in July speaks volumes to how attention-grabbing they are for me.
I’m also not alone – like most people I trust what I receive in the mail more than what I receive in other forms. My bills still mostly arrive in the mail, along with very official things like my yearly vehicle registration. I pay more attention to anything that looks important in the mail than I do to emails from many different companies.
People Also Love Options
Statistics show that about 85% of consumers have started making a purchase on one device and then finished on another. For example, I sometimes place items in a shopping cart on my phone but then wind up finishing the job on my laptop at home later on. So, how does mail align with this?
Mail is one touch of what can and should be many efforts you make to entice a new prospect to make a purchase – or take the action that you want them to do. When you send mail to a home, it’s most likely seen, but it may not evoke an immediate response. Even with a great call-to-action in place, it’s not enough for most people to just get one piece of mail. According to the DMA, it takes about 7-13 touches to get someone to convert.
Any well-made marketing campaign should include multiple touch points that allow a consumer to interact in whatever they are most comfortable or interested in – whether that means Facebook, a personalized mail offer, banner ads on a website, or some other touch.
Mail isn’t going anywhere fast – it’s just too trusted and great at generating motivating engagement to be left behind. However, if you want to do your best to get great results, use additional digital channels along with your direct mail marketing.