One great thing about direct mail automation is that your marketing can move with your customers just about anywhere. As consumers demand personalized experiences with your brand online and off, direct mail automation delivers.

When you automate direct mail by syncing Inkit with one of our CRM integration partners, you can trigger direct mail campaign that is just as targeted as everything you do online. Marketers who go all-in on direct mail automation can see a significant return on their investments because direct mail makes up for much of what digital lacks.

The numbers don’t lie. Read on for 31 essential direct mail marketing statistics you need to know.

Direct Mail Statistics: How to Break Through with Your Marketing Message?

For many consumers, physical direct mail brings more value and is more reliable than digital advertisements. The following direct mail statistics show that a piece of mail or a simple postcard can help your business to grow tremendously, especially if you target the millennials with your campaigns.

• Up to 90% of direct mail gets opened, while only 20-30% of email gets opened (DMN)
• 81% of people read or scan their mail daily (2010 USPS Household Diary Study)
• The average household receives only two direct mail pieces a day compared to 157 e-mails (USPS Marketer’s Guide)
• 36% of people under the age of 30 look forward to checking their mailboxes every day (Gallup)
• 70% of consumers prefer traditional mail when it comes to unsolicited offers  (Direct Marketing Association)
• 79% of consumers find reading mail more useful than going online (USPS Household Diary Study)
• 82% of millennials view messages printed on paper as more trustworthy than digital (5 Myths About Millennials and Mail)
• 92% of the Y generation say they enjoy reading print marketing more than digital ads. (Gallup poll).

Direct Mail Statistics: How to Make an Impact?

People have always enjoyed receiving a postcard or a physical letter. And it’s now even more enjoyable given how rare of an experience receiving a personal postcard has become. The tactile feel of a direct mail piece is much more personal than a digital ad.

The very process of looking through your mail, opening envelopes, or unwrapping gift boxes evokes emotions, which is a great foundation to build on for your brand recognition and customer loyalty or customer retention programs.

• Direct mail has a more significant emotional impact than digital ads, resulting in a stronger recall up to one week later (Enhancing the Value of Mail: The Human Response)
• 60% of UK consumers say direct mail makes more of an impression than anything they would see on a screen (Private Life of Mail)
• 57% of UK consumers say postcard marketing creates a more authentic relationship than digital ads (Private Life of Mail)
• 70% of people say direct mail feels more personal than the Internet (Epsilon)
• 48% of people retain direct mail for future reference (DMR)
• Affluent households prefer receiving direct mail over email (Sourcelink)
• All age groups are interested in direct mail, and 92% of millennials have been influenced to make a purchasing decision by direct mail (National Mortgage Professional Magazine)

Direct Mail Statistics: How to Increase Your Response Rates?

Your direct mailer response rates will be most powerful when combined with data-driven online campaigns. With direct mail automation, marketers can save lots of time and effort, while enjoying a high response rate as a result of personalization and data-driven campaign. Due to its high response rate, direct mail is also one of the best channels for client reactivation and triggered campaigns targeting dormant customers from your CRM lists.

• For every $167 spent on direct mail in the US, marketers sell $2095 in goods (a 1,255% return) (PRINT IS BIG)
• 58% of households with incomes over $65k purchased from direct mail (USPS Household Diary Study)
• Direct mail increases online donations 40% (Dunham+Company)
• The average direct mail response rate sent to former customers is 18.4% (USPS Household Diary Study), which is important because merely a 5% increase in retention yields profit increases of 25-95% (Small Business Trends).

According to the Direct Marketing Association’s Response Rate Report:

• Direct mail’s average household response rate is 5.1% (compared to 0.6% for email, 0.6% for paid search, and 0.4% for social media)
• Direct mail marketing garners a 37% higher response rate than email
• Postcards have an average response rate of 5.7%
• The direct mail response rate among people ages 18-21 years old is 12.4%
• The top response rate tracking methods are online tracking such as PURLs (61%), call center or telephone (53%), and code or coupon (42%)
• From 2015 to 2016, direct mail customer response rates increased by 43% and prospect lists response rates more than doubled (attributed largely to direct mail paired with digital intelligence)
• In 2018, the direct mail response rate for house lists was 9%. It was 2 times higher than in 2017 (ANA/DMA Response Rate Report 2018).
• A letter-sized envelope sent to household mailing list for a lead generation campaign had the best response rate of 15.1% (ANA/DMA Response Rate Report 2018).

Direct Mail Statistics: How Can Automated Direct Mail Strengthen Integrated Multi-Channel Campaigns?

Direct mail is a great standalone tool on its own, but by activating this offline channel in tandem with your online channels (email, mobile messaging, and social ads), you can transform your campaigns into truly customer-centric cross-channel marketing strategy.

• 60% of millennials expect consistent brand experiences across marketing channels (SDL)
• Direct mail boosted ROI by 20% when it was part of an integrated campaign (The Little Book of Bigger Returns, Royal Mail Group)
• Direct mail helped improve the lift of online campaigns by 62% (The Little Book of Bigger Returns, Royal Mail Group)
• Adding a person’s name and other personalized database information (along with using full color) can increase the response rate of direct mail campaign by up to 500% (Canon)
• Only 11% of marketers use just one medium (DMA response rate report)
• Direct mail works better with digital ads and yields a 28% higher conversion rate (Nonprofit Pro)
• In one study, marketing campaigns that used direct mail and at least one form of digital marketing media experienced 118% lift in response rate compared to using direct mail alone (Merkle)

The bottom line: If you’re considering adding direct mail automation to your marketing mix, now is the time. Personalization and relevance will be key to getting results, so supercharge your direct mail with digital data. You can integrate Inkit with your CRM to use the power of online activity to trigger personalized mail with variable printing.

The percentage of marketers sending direct mail has declined in recent years, as many jumped on the digital bandwagon. However, direct mail engagement is only growing as the volume of mail received lessens. The high response rates for direct mail marketing campaigns serve as a proof that it’s still a powerful marketing channel, and it should be used both to bring new customers to your business and reactivate the dormant ones. Consider using direct mail as part of your integrated cross-channel marketing strategy and your customer loyalty programs to increase your conversion rates. Are you ready to get started with direct mail automation? Click here to try Inkit’s direct mail automation software and schedule a demo.