Why are most business owners happy with their advertising investment when an onlooker can easily tell they receiving a very small return on their investment. Is it because they can’t really track the results? Or perhaps that is the way it has always been done.
So many people record their TV programs just so they can skip the commercials. Newspaper readership is way down and practically gone for some demographics. Radio spews countless loud gimmicky commercials that are rarely even heard. Email? Why? Too easy to block.
The demise of direct mail? The DMA says otherwise.
- In the last 25 years, response rates have risen in all age categories except one (25-34). What’s perhaps even more notable is that since the Great Recession – when most consumers couldn’t respond to much of anything – direct mail response rates have continued to increase. Dead things don’t grow.
- In most age categories, response rates average well over 40%, as does the number of recipients who find direct mail useful. And there is one extra-encouraging piece of data: the 22-24-year-old group is the top “performer” in these stats, which is good news for most marketers. Your up-and-coming audience may be techno-hip, but they love to hear from you via direct mail, so keep those postcards headed their way.
- Email can play an important role in your overall marketing strategy, especially for nurturing leads and staying in touch with existing customers, but it doesn’t cut it for generating leads in the first place. Direct mail averages a response rate of 4.4%, whereas email generates a response rate of a mere 0.12%.
Direct Mail or targeted Direct Mail? Hmmm.
I believe a personalized offer still has the highest return of any other media. The highest targeted direct mail? The plastic post card still leads by an overwhelming percentage. Mailing a gift card in a unique design like the laminated post cards average, yes averages of 8.4%