Direct Mail Ain't Dead: Six Trends You Can’t Ignore

The Case for Modernizing Direct Mail: Six Trends You Can’t Ignore

Over the last few years, the world has experienced many challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a chain reaction of events that now affect the stock market, asset prices, employment, supply chains, and interest rates.?

And to make matters worse, it now seems that a global recession is imminent.?

These challenges can make life difficult for commercial printers offering Direct Mail. But despite these pressures, six trends present a “silver lining” opportunity for Direct Mail to thrive uniquely in 2023.

Let’s take a look at each, and then let's discuss in the comments. Do you think Direct Mail is finally dead? Or is it experiencing a rebirth fueled by these trends?

TREND 1: In a Recession, Advertising Is Disproportionately Affected?

As mentioned, we are likely facing a serious recession, and unfortunately, advertising spend is disproportionately affected during these periods.

This means that advertising where the advertiser cannot track the demand generated from spending on an ad is at high risk. This puts printers who do not track the response, leads, and sales generated by the Direct Mail they print for clients in a vulnerable position, as they will be unable to demonstrate the connection between the Direct Mail they print and revenue.

Printers who do not track the response, leads, and sales generated by the Direct Mail they print for clients are in a vulnerable position, as they will be unable to demonstrate the connection between the Direct Mail they print and revenue.

To proactively address this issue, printers should modernize the response mechanisms for their Direct Mail by adding consumer-friendly, convenient, and highly trackable response options like Personalized URLs (PURLs) and Personalized QR Codes (PQRs), which have significantly advanced technologically in the past decade.?

TREND 2: Direct Mail Analytics Can Now Compete With Digital Advertising Platforms

Advertiser Perceptions conducted a study that found 93% of marketers use granular data and metrics provided by ad platforms to track and measure the effectiveness of their digital ad campaigns.?

However, most commercial printers do not offer their clients real-time Direct Mail reporting that breaks down responses by key attributes and are generally aware that such analytics are even possible.

By employing the response mechanisms mentioned in Trend 1, it is now possible to obtain reporting breakdowns by facets like an outer envelope, list, creative, offer, and more, putting Direct Mail on equal footing with digital advertising platforms.

TREND 3: Digital Advertising Has a Dirty Little Secret

The digital advertising industry's dirty secret is that its ad platforms take false credit for leads & sales. This is because these platforms falsely give last-touch attribution to digital ads. In reality, a respondent may have been motivated by Direct Mail, merely using Google to arrive at the brand's website!

Digital Ad Platforms falsely give last-touch attribution to digital ads. In reality, a respondent may have been motivated by Direct Mail, merely using Google to arrive at the brand's website.

Smart commercial printers can leverage this reality to their advantage. By using the kind of tracking mentioned earlier in this article, attribution can be tracked to the individual respondent level, which means that no attribution is misapplied to any other channel, and Direct Mail gets proper credit.

TREND 4: Direct Mail Can Cut Through Digital Ad Fatigue

According to the survey conducted by Advertiser Perceptions referenced above, 63% of consumers reported feeling overwhelmed by the number of digital ads they see, and 59% said they have become less likely to pay attention to digital ads over the past year.?

Additionally, there is evidence that many views and clicks on digital advertising are fake or bot-generated. A study by the Media Rating Council found that bots generated 22% of digital ad views and 17% of clicks. In contrast, a study by the Association of National Advertisers found that 41% of digital ad impressions and 51% of clicks were invalid.?

Smart commercial printers can leverage these insights to demonstrate that Direct Mail not only stands out against the barrage of digital messages but can also be delivered to real, live humans at any of the 163.1 million mailable addresses in the United States.

This is something that no digital advertising platform can guarantee.

TREND 5: Direct Mail Maintains a Strong, Positive ROI

A United States Postal Service study found that the average return on investment for Direct Mail was 29%. The average return on investment for digital advertising was 22%.?

But smart commercial printers don’t have to rely on data from the USPS or any other source: By adding tracking mechanisms like PURLs and PQRS, not only can the Direct Mail’s response rate be measured, but full match-back attribution can be done to leads and corresponding sales, confirming with certainty that the Direct Mail contributes a positive ROI.

TREND 6: Modernize Direct Mail’s Ability to Play With Digital Channels — Not Against Them

But before we bash digital ads to death, a word to the wise: A better strategy is to orchestrate digital channels WITH Direct Mail to create value and make all channels work together to improve results.

A Data & Marketing Association study found that combining Direct Mail with digital channels resulted in a 29% higher response rate than using Direct Mail alone and generated an ROI that increased by 50% when combined with digital channels.?

And in a study by Epsilon, using a combination of Direct Mail and digital channels resulted in a 36% higher purchase intent than using Direct Mail alone.

Smart Direct Mailers learn how to orchestrate multi-channel marketing automation workflows that create a “halo” around the intended target audience, driving messaging, branding, and calls-to-action across all relevant touchpoints.?

MindFire is Here to Help

With the most comprehensive Direct Mail Marketing Technology and Service portfolio available, MindFire’s mission is to help you grow your print business, using these six critical trends to fuel the growth of your Direct Mail offering in 2023.

MindFire data analytics and digital marketing is the white-label power behind America’s leading mailers and is the only choice for high-volume mailers that need the strongest and most reliable data, integrity, security, and fully powered Enterprise Direct Mail marketing automation solution available.

I'm excited by what 2023 holds and the opportunity to help our print & mail partners modernize their Direct Mail services to drive more leads, sales, and profit for their clients. It's clear that delivering measurable and innovative results is going to be critical in the months ahead.

What Do You Think?

Now it's your turn, friends.

Do you think Direct Mail is finally dead?

Or is it experiencing a rebirth fueled by these trends? And if so, which of these trends is going to be most important to you and your clients?