Top Mail Marketing Stats of 2015

The year is winding down (Or just getting started, depending on your marketing calendar), and it feels like the perfect weather to sit in front of your laptop with a mug of tea and a nice end-of-year wrap up list. We can't provide you with the tea, but we can provide the list.

Here are some of our favorite statistics from 2015, showing off the power of print, even fifteen years into the 21st century. Click the links for sources, and tell us in the comments what Direct Mail statistics stood out to you, this year.

$46 billion was the amount U.S. organizations spent on direct mail in 2014—up from $44.8 billion in 2013. $9.3 billion is the estimated amount organizations will spend on data for direct mail in 2015, an increase over the previous two years.  

42% of recipients read or scan direct mail pieces. 

14.1% of individuals age 45-54 respond to direct mail pieces, making them the demographic most likely to respond. 

92% of young shoppers say they prefer direct mail for making purchasing decisions. 

70% of Americans say mail is more personal than the internet. 

76% of small businesses say their ideal marketing strategy encompasses a combination of both print and digital communication. 

98% of consumers bring in their mail the day it’s delivered.  

Consumers who received offline direct mail advertisements were able to recall 75% of the time.

Direct mail ads take 21% less cognitive effort to process compared to same ads on digital media.

Direct mail averages a 3.7% response rate with a house list (across all industries).

 

 

What Can Direct Mail Learn from Email?

Doing some reading and research, recently, we found this list from Digital Marketer, showcasing the best and worst email subject lines they had seen over their years of experience. The full list is worth reading, but what stood out to us were a few of the topics they believe are necessary elements of any successful email campaign. Here are three of the eight elements they suggest:

1 – Self-Interest
These are your bread and butter subject lines – you should be using them most frequently.
They are usually direct and speak to a specific benefit your audience will gain by opening the email. Self-interest subject lines also help pre-qualify openers by giving them a clue about your email’s body content.

2 – Curiosity
If self-interest subject lines work because they communicate a direct benefit of opening the email, curiosity-based ones succeed for the exact opposite reason. These peak the interest of subscribers without giving away too much information, leading to higher opens. Be careful though, because curiosity-based subject lines can get old fast and are the most likely to miss their mark.

3 – Offer
Do you like free stuff?  Do you like to buy things?
So does your email list. When you are giving something away or selling something your subscribers would be interested in, directly stating that in your subject line is a great way to convince them to open the email and learn more.

Notice anything?

These same topics and talking points would be just as at-home in a direct mail piece as they are in email. Really, what it comes down to is simple human nature. As much as some of us may not want to admit it, people are typically pretty predictable. By grabbing a consumer's interest with an eye-catching package, envelope, or postcard, you can dramatically improve the success of whatever piece of marketing that package is holding.

Simply sticking a coupon into a plain white envelope is not enough (except when it's exactly what's called for), and smart marketers and business owners are taking the extra time to develop more complex and interesting ways to deliver their marketing materials to their customers.

For the latest advances in print marketing, and information on how to take your mail pieces to the next level, contact us at 866.872.9249 or at info@trayinc.com