Direct Mail Thrives In The Digital Era

Over the past 10 years there has been an unstoppable rise in the use of the Internet, Social Media and Email for Marketing. Despite this, one older form of Marketing that is thriving in the digital age is Direct Mail.

The Direct Mail industry has taken advantage of more sophisticated databases, targeting specific audiences as well as specifically designed mail pieces, resulting in impressive ROI.

Marketing Managers can refine their mailing with high precision. Harnessing the power of big data, they hunt through hundreds of sources of public and private records, assemble specific categories for families and continuously update them in real-time. Instead of taking a month you’re talking about seconds, in some cases, to run a query on the data, says Christian Ward – Chief Data Officer at Info group.

If a Theatre wants to create and sent out a Mail Shot about upcoming performances, it can set criteria around people who have recently purchased a Theatre Ticket, live near a performance venue or are over a certain age.

While the number of first-class mail delivered dropped 33% over the past 10 years to 69 billion pieces in 2012, according to the Postal Service, the number of offers mailed by marketers has remained stable and represents a growing majority of what postmen carry. Direct Mail represented 56% of all postal deliveries in 2011, compared with 45% a decade earlier, according to the Direct Marketing Association.

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