The response rate for direct mail rides high in the face of digital increase
If your marketing strategy relies heavily on email, you may want to take a closer look at its more effective counterpart, direct mail. The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has found that direct mail boasts a 4.4 percent response rate compared to email’s comparatively tame average of .12 percent.
Translated into ratios, direct mail has a response rate of up to 10 to 30 times that of email. Direct mail’s response rate jumps even higher when compared to online display.
The DMA used transactional data from Bizo and Epsilon to analyze more than 29 billion emails and 2 billion online display impressions. The group tracked consumer actions both immediately following a click and in the days and weeks after being exposed to an online ad.
Overall for display, only 6 percent converted as a result of the immediate action of the click, meaning that 94 percent of conversions happen at a later date – an important finding, considering that the success of display’s impact is generally judged by its click-through rate.
A DMA spokesperson attributed some of direct mail’s continued strength to the fact that consumers today are faced with an ever-increasing number of digital messages received via banners, email inboxes, social media, etc.
Source: Direct Marketing Association