Use of Direct Mail Boosts Multi-Channel Campaigns

Direct Mail has the capacity to boost engagement with campaigns, when used within a multi-channel campaign, according to new research by Royal Mail.

Royal Mail’s Market Reach yesterday released results from a study into the impact of mail on multi-channel campaigns. Campaigns which used mail alongside other media were more likely to have better acquisition, sales and market share results than those which did not use mail, according to research commissioned by the mail company.

Research presented to the Institute of Fundraising’s Insight SIG conference yesterday found that 57% of campaigns that used Direct Mail alongside other media achieved high sales, compared with 45% that did not use Direct Mail.

Similarly, for those campaigns that aimed to acquire new customers, 42% of campaigns using Direct Mail achieved this compared with 30% that did not.

Market Reach’s Jonathan Harman also shared the findings of neurological research with the conference, with studies commissioned by the mail company concluding that mail performed better than other media in triggering engagement, emotional intensity, memory encoding and attention averages than other channels.

However, he cautioned that the impact of mail was strongest if it was the third opportunity for a prospect to view a campaign.

“You’ll get better results from mail if you see it as a complement to other channels,” Harman said.

Another study commissioned by Royal Mail that involved monitoring households found that mail that was heavy was read and considered for longer than mail packs with a lighter weight.

1 in 5 Insight Analysts Say Insight Drives the Charity

A survey of the attendees at yesterday’s conference (completed by 59 in total), found that one in five of the insight specialists believe that insight is used extensively within their charities and is at the heart of most fundraising activity.

David Cole, managing director of fast.MAP, presented at the close of the conference, which also showed that 90 per cent of the survey respondents believes that the use of data within their organisations is likely to increase over the next year.

However, 84 per cent said they felt that more could be done with the data available to them – the main barriers to its use being resource and system limitations.

Blog