You've Got Mail: Should You Re-Unlock Direct Mail in the Digital World?

Digital Is Not The Only Option to Consider

Silicon Valley’s efficiency-at-all-costs model is wrong.¹ ²

Email and texting are fast, cheap, and easy³—so why do my college friends and I prefer to get letters from each other?

Because physical mail means something different than a text.⁴

Yes, I know this is actually about email—pretend it’s not.

I’m not alone—19 of every 20 young professionals said that they feel very positively about receiving personal cards and letters.⁵

59% of U.S. survey respondents enjoy receiving mail from brands about new products

If the goal of marketing is to spend the least money to create the largest customer behavior change, does it even make sense to be comparing latency between digital channels and direct mail?

Are marketers making a mistake by ignoring mail?

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Direct Mail Overview

Direct mail is one of the oldest forms of advertising in the modern marker’s arsenal.

The earliest predecessors to direct mail—printed pamphlets—appeared in the 1480s (yes, you read that right).

But it wasn’t until 1872 that Aaron Montgomery-Ward created the first true direct mail business.

Since then, direct mail’s had 150 years of trial, error, and innovation.

Schwab—in the 1960s—lauded direct mailing marketers for being some of the most ‘hard-boiled’ and metrics-driven businessmen in “How to Write a Good Advertisement.”

So how does mail stack up as a channel contender in the modern world?

Direct Mail Advantages

Direct Mail stands out in our digital world. Most of it’s advantages are in contrast to the ease and speed that digital brings.

Advantage #1: Mailboxes Aren’t Crowded

Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded

-Yogi Berra

Your mailbox is only half as full as it was 20 years ago. But that change doesn’t mean your attention is exactly proportionally reduced when checking the mail.

If anything, the new highs direct mail response rates (a 7x increase vs email) have hit show that there’s a lot of low-hanging fruit.

Advantage #2: Customers Don't Think It's Creepy

3 of 4 modern consumers find over-personalized marketing “creepy”.

Although personalized ads can increase clickthrough rates (CTRs), the myopic mission to increase clicks can backfire—1 in 4 of the same customers polled would leave a company if they saw too much ‘creepy’ personalization.

Customers don’t like the immediacy between stages of the sales funnel.

Imagine you told a friend that you didn’t like your current jacket over dinner.

1. They immediately go on their phone and order a new jacket off Amazon to your house and tell you about it

2. They keep that knowledge and get you a new one for your birthday in 2 months

Although the path of both these scenarios is the same—a jacket bought after complaint—one of them would be MUCH weirder than the other. Marketing is the same.

Direct mail is often perceived as more personal and less intrusive because there must be a lag between action and the next impression, making it less creepy.

Advantage #3: Great Cross-Channel Effects

You should expect a 15%-20% increase in responses if you add direct mail to an existing digital marketing campaign—and the advantages snowball as more channels are coordinated.

Direct mail provides an excellent opportunity for cross-selling products or services, especially when tailored to specific customer segments with similar interests.

At any rate, mail helps round out your customer experience and gets you closer to omni-channel marketing

Direct Mail Challenges

But the move away from physical marketing wasn’t without cause—working with real materials in the real world is hard.

Challenge #1: Snail Mail is…Slow

The most successful B2C companies—Amazons and Coca-Colas—work tirelessly to reduce the amount of time between your initial desire and fulfillment.

Years of research goes into shortening the time and steps it takes to buy their product.

“[Coke should always be] within an arm’s reach of desire”

—Robert Woodruff, former Coca-Cola President

Wherever you’re reading this, I can promise theres a can of Coke within a few minutes of walking.

Coke specifically spent billions in the last decade to bring their products to all of Africa—they really are focused on being within arms reach.

A well-considered consumer might reconsider the cons of drinking coke—the negative tooth effects, high sugar content—if there were a long lag between the desire and fulfillment. Coke sells more by avoiding that.

Digital campaigns are great for immediacy.

Imagine you left something in a shopping cart online and got distracted. An immediate email can complete the sale while you’re in the mindset to buy.

Direct mail campaigns generally take more time to plan, produce, and deliver compared to digital channels, making it less suitable for time-sensitive promotions.

Keep in mind the evolving service level agreements (SLAs) of USPS. Changes can impact the timing and reliability of your direct mail campaigns.

You’re not at the mercy of your ad platform anymore, but you’re still not independent.

Challenge #2: Direct Mail is Expensive

Beyond just slow, the physical world puts more constraints on the mail channel. Printing and posting is expensive!

The production and postage costs associated with direct mail can be higher than digital alternatives⁶, affecting the overall budget for your marketing efforts.

Especially for smaller campaigns, the design, copywriting, and drafting costs add up as a percent of total ad spend. Direct mail is not appropriate at smaller scales because these costs can’t be reduced with bulk printing rates.

Challenge #3: Tracking Results is Harder

Tracking the success of direct mail campaigns can be challenging compared to digital channels, making it important to implement alternative measurement strategies.

Instead of getting your clicks, views, and actions neatly recorded in whatever digital tool you’re used to, you’ll need to plan well in advance of your campaign.

There are ways to do this—QR codes, campaign-specific phone numbers—but they require more setup and planning than digital marketers are used to.

What Should You Decide?

The bottom line: Direct mail is too small a mix of most marketing since digital has become the default. You should look at your particular media mix to see if mail has a place in the distribution.

Incorporating direct mail into your marketing arsenal can be a strategic move, provided you navigate its nuances effectively.

By understanding the pros, cons, and implementing smart tracking strategies, you can unlock the untapped potential of direct mail in your marketing mix.

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1. Referring to the practice of ‘removing friction’ from a user using a product—not necessarily on business internal functions

2. At least, this model shouldn’t be the only lens used to understand humans in commerce

3. Almost anything a consultant would put on a weighting matrix for digital would win—but that doesn’t mean the whole world should be digital

4. Although emails are designed to be analogous to physical letters, the medium does affect the message

5. This effect is likely age-striated because older members of the workforce remember when their mailboxes were full of advertisements before email conquered

6. Obviously depends on the value of the digital market