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Direct Mail ‘Matters’ For Marketeers

The marketing industry today is trapped in a constant state of flux, overflowing with groundbreaking new concepts that could promote new products and services to a range of new audiences.

Outdated tactics such as newspaper adverts have been cast aside in the last 25 years, replaced with E-Mail, Direct Mail and Social Media.

The invention of the Internet has paved the way for an assortment of new marketing techniques, revolutionising the advertising landscape and giving businesses the chance to interact with customers freely.

Not only does this bring consumers closer to their favourite brands, but it also allows organisations to refine their products and services, leading to potentially significant improvements in quality.

With this in mind, organisations are able to react to customer feedback and alter their offerings accordingly, tailoring them to the needs of the market.

However, although the benefits of effective marketing cannot be overstated, it is essential that businesses formulate an efficient strategy.

Merely setting up a social media account and delivering emails to a mailing list is often inadequate, as it ignores the individual preferences of customers.

If consumers cannot engage with a company’s marketing strategy, they will simply opt to look elsewhere, handing potential profits over to rivals within a field.

While some of the leading technologies require the Internet, other approaches are still proving effective for some organisations, including Direct Mail.

Direct Mail Now Matters To Consumers
One channel that has picked up considerable attention from marketers over recent years is Direct Mail, and a new study suggests that it could reap rewards.
A recent study found that 79% of consumers act on mail shots immediately.

It also discovered that 10% more people visited a brand’s website in response to Direct Mail when compared to E-Mail, whereas almost half of those surveyed admitted to retaining printed items – 17% confessed to doing this on a regular basis.

Lyle Rainey, European business development manager at HP, said: “At a time where marketers are faced with an ever-expanding range of marketing channels and where increasing amounts of customer communication go online, it is important to have insight into consumers’ behaviours and requirements.

“HP is supporting this research to develop insights about the respective roles of digital and printed communications, which are of great value to the industry.”
Some 56% of respondents also said a mail piece is the “most trustworthy” of all media channels.

All this proves that people continue to value Postal Marketing from brands, finding that it plays a seamless role within their connected worlds, offers some qualities not found in other communications and is an essential part of the overall ‘brand experience’.

“Many people today easily could choose to conduct their lives entirely online, but they don’t. For brands to market effectively in a truly connected world, they must fully recognise the role that Direct Mail communications play and will continue to play for many years to come.”