View This Year’s Top 10 List: Top 10 Benefits of a Direct Mail Marketing Campaign [2023]

What if there was a way to reach your intended audience without the high competition for ad rank and user attention? Is there a way to provide relevant ads that impact a target audience without the burden of an algorithm? 

The solution to these questions is direct mail marketing. Not only is it considered the Gold Standard of marketing for industries such as insurance, home services, ­and many others, but its lack of intrusiveness encourages customers to listen to your message. 

There are many benefits to incorporating direct mail into your marketing channel, such as:

• Target Residents at the Household Level
• No Algorithms or Filtration
• More Marketing Touchpoints
• Make an Impact
• Increased Trust
• Less Competition
• No Ad-block or Skipping
• Relevant Ads
• Maintain User Attention Span
• The Gold Standard

Direct mail has become underutilized since the dawn of digital advertisement. However, its ability to make an impact on an audience is unmatched, making it an excellent channel for a company’s marketing strategy. 

Target Residents at the Household Level

When you send an advertisement to a physical address, you can be certain that it is connected to a resident.

This is excellent for companies specializing in home products or services, such as lawn care, interior design, home alarms, and pest control. 

Marketing via home address also guarantees that your mailer will deliver to its proper destination and that responses will have accurate information. While social media accounts and emails often become inactive, the physical address will never expire or be forgotten. 

Finally, direct mail can retarget to similar prospects: their neighbors. If your company performs a service at one residence, sending mailers to households in surrounding areas encourages them to use your service. Not only will you have the data to show that they might be similar customers, but you will also have a recent advocate for your business. 

Related: Mail and Homeowners: The Hidden Audience

No Algorithms or Filtration

With the onslaught of digital advertising in the 21^st century, social media and email hosting sites attempt to balance between creating a pleasant user experience and a suitable advertising platform. 

The constant bombardment of advertising has led some companies to filter out irrelevant or unnecessary advertisements for users.

An example of this would be Gmail’s Promotions tab. Since its introduction, it has been shunting marketing emails into a separate section off of the main page. In fact, 90% of commercial messages deliver to Gmail users’ promotions tab, with a read rate of 14%.

Another example of these algorithms is Google Ads, which ranks an ad based on its landing page, ad relevancy, and expected Click through rate. Marketers are responsible for optimizing their ads and websites to rank higher on a search page. Even when fully optimized, your ads are still at risk of being outbid by larger companies. And when the budget dries up, the ad disappears.

Direct mail has no such machines to filter out or rank your content, so you can know that your message reaches your entire audience. Your ads will never be ranked nor sorted into different locations based on an online algorithm. And a mail campaign is never truly over – as you’ll see in the next section.

Related: Filter Out the Online Bots With Direct Mail

More Marketing Touchpoints

Direct mail has the longest lifespan for a single ad due to its physical presence within the home. A common practice is to open mail and set it aside for other household members to read. Even if the customer does not respond right away to an ad, the ad’s presence within the home gives it more opportunity to make a sale through the numerous times a person may view it. 

Nearly 27% of mail is still “live” within the household after a month. At DK Solutions, we often receive mail from campaigns sent out years prior! That’s how powerful direct mail can be. 

Related: Direct Mail: Multiple Marketing Touchpoints

Make an Impact

Using eye-tracking, core biometrics, and brain scanning, participants of an OIG study showed a higher subconscious value and desire towards products advertised through print mail.  

In addition, participants could recall the print ads they viewed a week prior with more clarity and confidence than their digital counterparts.

Customers remembering your brand is crucial for brand awareness and future sales. 

Related: The Emotional IMPACT of Direct Mail Marketing

Increased Trust

The rise of social media marketing allows many companies to advertise their products and services due to the low barrier of entry. In recent years, many internet users have realized that clicking on unknown links from shady companies poses a threat to your computer.

Even if the product or service would greatly benefit them, internet users often avoid ad links due to the persistent risk of malware. 

With print mail, no such danger exists. Customers can freely read your advertisements and inquire about your products and services without the risk of a virus. 

Related: The Truth About Online Data

Less Competition

Companies often limit direct mail campaigns on their marketing platform due to the perceived cost of print and postage.

However, this higher barrier of entry means that customers are not constantly bombarded with print ads like their digital counterparts. 

In 2007, Jay Walker-Smith, President of Yankelovich, claimed that the average individual is exposed to approximately 5,000 ads per day. Digital marketing spending has since grown from $27 Billion in 2010 to an estimated $152 Billion in 2020. Due to this high increase in spending capital, some marketers speculate that users see nearly 10,000 ads per day.

Thankfully with direct mail, there is much less competition. JIC Mail reports that the average household receives 1.3 items of addressed mail each day. Less content every day means there is a greater chance that your audience will see your ad with their mail. Not only are fewer companies competing with direct mail, but there is also less competition for your audience’s attention.

Related: The Competitive Side to Online Advertising

No Ad-block or Skipping

As a response to the constant bombardment of digital advertising, many users choose to remove advertisements through third-party ad blockers.

Over 1/3 of U.S. internet users actively block ads for at least a portion of their online activities. This severely limits digital ads’ reach across every online platform. 

In addition, a MAGNA/IPG Media Lab study reported that 65% of participants immediately skipped video advertisements during their online sessions. Of those that skipped, a reported 76% of participants did so out of habit. For companies that invest in large video production, this statistic highlights how detrimental ingrained habits can be to advertisements.  

With direct mail, no such barriers are set in place. All advertisements are delivered and shown directly to your audience. Without these common blockers or skipping habits, many users view their mail without difficulty.

Related: How Internet Users Block Digital Advertising

Relevant Ads

For many digital ads, internet behavior and user input often determine important profiling information. However, user-generated data can be wildly inaccurate.

Whether it is children lying about their age to use Facebook, or people simply trying to protect their personal data, the information collected from these sources is often largely unreliable. 

Social media advertisements may use this unreliable data and become highly irrelevant to the audience they advertise to. Less than 1/3 of U.S. customers claim that digital ads are related to their interests. 

Direct mail is more relevant than ever. The data tied to home addresses and people are less skewed and more trustworthy. And thanks to companies like DK Solutions, our TargetList methodology allows us to target only the most likely prospects based on current customers. 

Related: Dissecting the Relevancy of Online & Direct Mail Marketing

Maintain User Attention Span

Digital marketing creates competition not only with other companies, but with users’ attention spans. The constant exposure to digital ads has led some internet users to display a behavior often called banner blindness. As a result, as few as 14% of participants could recall the last online display ad they viewed. 

In contrast to this, direct mail is frequently read and remembered. A JIC Mail report determined that 65% of all addressed mail is opened. On average, each item is passed on 1.2 times and read 4.2 times by each receiver. With the limited amount of advertising through direct mail, your audience is more inclined to read your company’s ad. 

Related: Has Online Advertising Influenced Our Attention Spans?

The Gold Standard

Not only does direct mail have a higher trust among consumers and less competition, but many insurance and home services companies call it the gold standard of marketing. Insurance companies praise direct mail marketing as a way to receive a higher ROI than all other forms of digital advertisements.