It also helps modify future campaigns to boost the return on investment and increase the response rate from their customers. However, they can vary significantly based on the type of mail, target audience, and region. Most marketers use direct mail as it makes up much of what lacks in digital marketing.
Average Statistics for Direct Mail
According to Data and Marketing Association, 90 percent of direct mail gets opened and read compared to using electronic mail. It is easy for consumers to ignore promotional emails because they send and receive many emails each day. This makes it difficult to distinguish your message from other competitors because they are considered to be in the same category in the eyes of the reader. Direct mail is opened and read at a rate of 9 out of 10 times because it is easier to target your audience and raise interest in what you have to offer.
Direct mail offers an average return on investment of 29 percent of the total pieces of mail sent over a specified period. This number is expected to increase when customers get more exposure to your brand. You can narrow the market with specific objectives that have a strong call to action like coupons. Direct mail can be used to target the frequent-buyer group on selected merchandise rather than advertising a general storewide sale.
Calculating the Monetary Return
To find the rate of return for your direct mail campaign, you need to know the number of mailings, sale price, response rate, and conversion rate. The number of people who respond to an ad is the response rate and the number of customers who make a purchase is the conversation rate. To calculate the total profit or loss, you need to subtract the amount you invested from the total amount of product sales after conversion. If you get a positive number then the return on investment from your campaign was a profit. For instance, if you spent $2000 on a direct mail campaign and got $2500 in sales then you made a profit of $500.
Reasons Why Direct Mail is Ideal for Your Marketing Campaign
- It Has a High Return on Investment
Direct mail gives a better return on investment than most online advertising platforms. Online display ads and paid search have an ROI of 16% and 23%, which are lower than direct mail that offers a 29% return on investment. An email may be scalable to a wider customer base but has a lower response rate of 0.6%. This means that many people who receive emails rarely respond and even if they do, they may not be persuaded enough to make a sales conversion.
- Direct Mail is Less Competitive
This might not seem like a good thing at first glance, as one may think that very few marketers use direct mail because it does not work. However, the statistics on the direct mail campaigns show that it is easier to get results with this type of marketing since few people do it. While other competitors focus on digital advertising, you can take advantage of direct mail, which tends to have better sales conversion because of higher open and read rates for direct mail.
- It Gets Undivided Attention
When consumers open their mailboxes, they do not throw away the stack of letters without having the first glance. Many people have the fear that they may miss something important and therefore, end up opening and reading them without hesitation. The same cannot be said for emails because an individual may have a bunch of notifications dinging on their laptop or phone with other tabs open on the computer. Direct mail gets undivided attention because there are fewer distractions involved when people open and read them.
- It Is More Memorable
Direct mail stands out from emails and other forms of digital advertising because they are tangible. Digital campaign focuses on sight and hearing while direct mail can take advantage of all the five senses. Since it comes in a physical form, it is easy to remember any upcoming promotions or sales discounts shown in the letter cards or postcards. It sticks with the targeted audience because of its tangibility and creativity.
Direct mails can be combined with a digital marketing strategy to make the most of both worlds. Many customers create a strong bond with your brand with direct mails, as they are tangible, creative, and personalized. It creates a lot of excitement that leads to higher sales conversions, unlike emails that have low open and read rates.