As much as digital media has exploded over the last decade, this doesn’t (and shouldn’t!) spell the end for traditional printed materials. Here at Creative Storm, print is one of our great loves and we still strongly believe that this form of direct marketing is a fantastic way to connect with audiences and generate sales. But don’t just take our word for it, there’s plenty of statistics out there that speak volumes about how important print marketing is…

In order to create a successful direct mail campaign you need to understand your database, target the right audience and send your mail at the right time with the right offer. Here’s some reasons why direct mail still has a valuable place in todays society.

More Memorable
Our brains process physical and digital media differently. Direct mail requires 21% less cognitive effort to process than digital media suggesting that it is both easier to understand and more memorable. People have stronger emotional responses to physical content. The reason for this is they enjoy tangibility; something they can they can see, touch and interact with. Overall this contributes to physical ads leaving a longer-lasting impact than digital. This is backed up by a study by Canadian neuromarketing firm TrueImpact who compared the effects of paper marketing (direct mail pieces, in this case) with digital media (email and display ads). When asked to cite the brand of an advertisement they had just seen, recall was 70% higher among participants who were exposed to a direct mail piece than a digital ad.

Direct Mail can be personable
With direct mail you have the option of personalising your items by adding customer’s names to your letters. By doing this you can instantly make your customer’s feel valued. You’ll know yourself that if you receive a letter through the door using the generic ‘To the Homeowner’ or ‘To the Occupier’, then it may put you off opening the mail in the first place. Even adding a simple signature at the end can build trust. Personalisation can go further than this and companies can tailor the direct mail to meet the needs of a particular campaign. By cleverly using data analytics and segment knowledge, marketers can craft personalised pieces of direct mail that generate a better response with improved ROI (return on investment).

Printed mail has a greater chance of being seen
A report by The Joint Industry Committee’s (JICMAIL) 2018 Direct Mail Annual Report concluded that door drops for retailers aimed at 25 to 34 year olds aren’t just seen by one person in each household they are delivered to. Because they are shared in the home, each door drop is seen by 1.14 people on average. This is an increase of over 10%. With emails delivered to one single person it is all too easy for that person just to delete the message instantly.

Royal Mail MarketReach in their “It’s all about Mail and eMail” point out that 51% of emails are deleted within two seconds. With print however, it has a physical presence in that person’s world instead of disappearing and therefore it is a lot harder to ignore. Consumers may find themselves overwhelmed by inboxes cluttered with unsolicited marketing emails and are more receptive to direct mail, which arrives on a much less-cluttered channel.

More desire to purchase
Catalogues are a great way of advertising your products. They allow space and freedom to tell a story and to share a lifestyle. Consumer’s of all ages still like to spend time pouring over a catalogue. Think about  IKEA for example, it’s catalogue is the main marketing tool of the Swedish retailer. It is produced in 32 languages, with more than 210 million copies delivered to homes in 44 countries. So why is it such a success? It’s because the catalogue creates desire – it doesn’t simply show people their products, it inspires them as well! It gives the audience an idea of what life with the product could look like and combines different products together, which opens the readers mind up to new ideas.

We hope this blog has helped you to realise the potential there is in print marketing. Far from being left in the dust, it has retained its importance and when used in combination with online strategies it can prove to be a force to be reckoned with!