Direct Mail still works in a Digital World

With advertising and people’s attention increasingly online, you may wonder if direct mail is worth investing in at all. The word has gone digital, but there’s still good reason to make direct mail part of your advertising campaign.

Despite our rapidly changing world, a daily trip to the mailbox is still a habit for almost everyone. People still check their mail, look at what they’ve got inside, and make a decision about what to do with it every day.

While online advertising certainly has its place, people have become banner blind to all those advertisements. This has led to a resurgence of print marketing. Let’s look at some key benefits.

High ROI
Compared to other advertising types, direct mail marketing has some of the highest response rates out there. A huge percentage of people open their direct mail, and as much as 5% of the people who open that mail respond.

This might not seem like much but compared to just 0.2% of a response rate from online ads, it’s a big difference.

Good combination with digital marketing
Most people with any experience in marketing know that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. A good marketing campaign will include a mix of different advertising strategies. Although direct mail has a high ROI compared to other forms of marketing, it also works powerfully in combination with other types of marketing.

Easy to Target
Direct mail is relatively easy to target. If you know who your demographic is, chances are there’s a list of addresses specifically targeting those people. Examples include business owners, a person living in a specific area, or their interests.

Advertising to the right people is as simple as selecting the right list. Even somewhat niche topics such as gardening or pet owners may have a list in the right area. You can find out if there’s a list for your particular needs by checking out available ones in your targeted area.

Less Competition
The digital marketing world is swamped right now. Every corner of the web is filled with flashing banner ads, pop ups, emails and more. It takes an incredible advertisement to break through so many advertisements competing for a customer’s attention.
Unfortunately, not everyone has millions of dollars to spend on an incredible, eye-catching ad. Direct mail marketing can still give those on a lower budget a chance to be seen, since the only other advertisements competing for attention are the others in the mailbox that day.

Tangible Object
Finally, many studies have shown that customers pay more attention to physical objects than they do digital ones. While they may not even look at a digital advertisement, hitting that “Delete All” button in their email, chances are they’ll at least glance at a physical advertisement.

This is one of the reasons why direct mail has such a high open rate—there’s something about peeking into an envelope to see what you might have that helps get customer’s attention.

Our world is mostly digital, but there’s still plenty of room for a direct mail strategy. Savvy business owners use both to help get the attention of consumers.