4 Reasons Ad Mail Is Still Winning in the Age of the Internet

Organizing the right customer data, buying the right materials, designing letters, printing out mailings, stuffing envelopes, and paying for postage ... all of this seems like a lot of trouble for a company to go through. So why is costly “junk mail” landing in the mailboxes of so many Americans? Why does it persist, even when faster and cheaper strategies are becoming more popular and prevalent?

1. Recipients Spend More Time with Every Piece of Mail They Get

It’s all about the nature of mail; it’s so very direct. Those familiar with the difficult world of email marketing know that the open rate hovers around 17-27 percent. With direct mail, 70-80 percent of recipients will open their mail, even if they think it’s junk.

2. They’ll Often Consider Purchases or Visit Your Website

For email, the click-through rate, meaning those who open and click on the content of the email, is often around 4 percent. That’s the trick, isn’t it? It’s much harder to prove that the mail was opened, looked at, or considered when it’s in print. But here are some interesting statistics: Customers who receive ad mail spend 28 percent more than those who don’t, according to a study by the U.S. Postal Service. If the ad mail lists a website, 60 percent will visit it. In addition, 2.5 billion mailed coupons got redeemed in 2015. Major companies, especially retailers, often get a huge return on catalogs, too.

3. Your Brand Will Get a Few Minutes of Guaranteed Exposure

Recipients spend more time touching, opening, reading, inspecting, and, yes, sometimes tossing out your physical mail. But that’s a few minutes of messing with something, and that means more exposure time for your brand. With the shrinking online space, it can take a lot of investment to get in front of the right eyeballs, even for a few seconds. With mail, you’re often guaranteed a few minutes.

The worry is often that recipients will get annoyed. They may if your content is misleading or harassing, but 70 percent of Americans believe mail is “more personal” than email. Well-designed mail can help you move forward with creating a personal relationship with your brand.

4. Marketers Plan On Sending Out More Direct Mail by 2020, Not Less

With a median ROI of about 16 percent, direct mail isn’t really going away any time soon. In 2014, it was a $1.39 billion industry. The Boston Consulting Group says that this advertising spending will increase one percent in the next few years.

But smart marketers need to consider the costs.

One of the problems to consider when making investments is the issue of poor address data. Those costs can spiral to become a huge problem in the long run: $4.2 billion is lost every year due to returned ad mail. On average, it costs a business $3 for every piece of returned mail that needs to be handled and resent.

Click here for a free infographic with more statistics on direct mail.