The Rebirth of Direct Mail
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2020 will go down as the year that not only changed the world and the way we live, but many marketing approaches we had tried and tested over the years were completely turned on their heads. In this opinion piece, Andrea Candy from Zipform Digital examines the current trends in direct mail.
Most marketers have known for years that direct mail has been declining in popularity. Millennial marketers may have never even conducted a direct mail campaign – clearly indicating the impact of digital transformation on the way we do business.
In 2019, Australia Post commissioned a study into the role of mail in the digital age, which made me think about the decline of direct mail in recent years, and wondered if organisations are in danger of losing the knowledge and skills to utilise mail as part of the marketing mix. We know that we are in the age of information overload. Has the focus on digital been to the detriment of mail? Is it seen as too old school?
Surprisingly for some, the Australia Post study showed that mail still has a unique place in many people’s hearts and homes.
Perhaps some people can relate, but I still get excited about receiving paper mail. The sensory response to feeling nice paper, the smell of the ink; the excitement of ripping open the envelope; all conveys messages other than what is just written on the page. It also tells me how much thought the brand has put into producing this. A vehicle servicing company once sent me a hand addressed letter with a REAL stamp, only for me to find inside a reminder to service my vehicle with them. The disappointment was real, but the excitement and throwing down of all my bags and keys just to open that letter wasn’t.
Debunking the myth
Countless studies are showing that millennials are demonstrating a definite appreciation for the value of printed mail, in greater numbers than their older counterparts. Most people in the industry have heard this anecdotally, however the empirical evidence obtained by Australia Post indicated that a staggering 62% of 18-34 year old’s feel important when receiving mail, versus just 35% of over 35 year olds.
Sorry, we’re full
With our inboxes full of emails from every brand we’ve ever given an email address to (and some we haven’t), how do we as marketers cut through this clutter? For example, a colleague I interviewed for this article told me they have two business and two personal email accounts, and probably about 600 unread emails between them all, with no intention to empty them anytime soon because it was just too daunting.
You may have the best, highly personalised, well designed, bright and sparkly unicorn email ever created, but you’re still just one email sitting amongst those 600 unread ones. And if you have Gmail, Yahoo or even Outlook 365, that email is likely not even sitting in a target’s main inbox.
A new beginning?
Before digital, direct mail was the ‘spray and pray’ tool of choice. If you worked at one of the big companies in any capital city in Australia, you would brief your data analytics team to provide you with a list of 100,000 people who met some kind of vague data profile, the agency was briefed to design a mail pack or postcard, and out it went. Then you prayed for at least a 3.0% response rate to justify your budget spend.
The tool of choice has now switched to digital – our inboxes are full, our letterboxes are empty, and we’ve been at home more than ever. COVID-19 has changed the way we work.
There is a new opportunity – with Millennials and Gen Z growing up with email as a part of their lives, to cut through the email spam and send them a good letter (or a clever DM piece). With a third of under 30’s looking forward to checking their mailbox every day, and clever car servicing managers sending out handwritten letters for me to fling my bag and keys to the ground just to open the envelope, there is hope for a new beginning for direct mail working in partnership with digital.
A partnership for success
Now is the time to create highly personalised targeted pieces to cut through the clutter. Direct mail can be a fantastic method of engaging with a target audience via a trusted medium and reinforcing digital efforts, especially with 18-34 year old’s as we’ve seen in the 2020 Australia Post study. 56% of millennials trust mail compared to only 30% of their older cohort.
Avenues for customers to reply with a digital call to action has significantly increased. COVID-19 has seen a comeback of QR codes which can direct customers to interact with your brand via a customised and socially distanced journey – whether it be social media channel, directing to a webform, or online portal. There are many practical applications that can be explored. Creating a trackable response rate in print DM, and integrating this with a digital element, provides for increased conversion tracking overall.
A well-designed piece of mail doesn’t have to be prohibitively expensive. Australia Post also have further discounts available for Promotional and Acquisition Mail pieces. If you choose your most high value potential customers, then your potential ROI could be significant, and your CPA at an acceptable amount to the business. It’s certainly a trend seen in the US, now Australia, and definitely amongst our own clients, that postcards as a marketing tool are on the rise – in the last five years usage increased by 19% as the leading format of direct mail. Copy has decreased by 62% in the same period. This is in part response to lower paper costs and greater cost effectiveness in postage for this format.
I’m not advocating for the death of email marketing – quite the contrary in fact. A mutually beneficial partnership between email and direct mail is key to extending the “shelf life” of a campaign (and therefore cut through), which is a flash back to a time not long ago when the phrase “multi-channel marketing” came into effect.
Should this not just be best practice?
Andrea Candy is Customer Relationship Manager at Zipform Digital. She has more than 20 years’ experience in direct marketing across a range of industries. Connect with Andrea on LinkedIn.
Find out more about the 2020 Australia Post and Accenture research on mail’s role in the digital age.