Direct Mail Statistics for 2016: 25 Insights on Omnichannel Campaigns

Data lovers, rejoice! We’ve pulled together a new list of direct mail stats indicating what makes direct mail such an integral part of your omnichannel campaign.

Millennials Love It

36% of people under 30 look forward to checking the mail each day.
At least 42% of millennials prefer direct mail political ads over online ads, with 38% favoring both equally.
66% are more likely to remember to use a voucher if they have a physical copy to carry around.
23% bought or ordered something as a result of receiving direct mail in the last 12 months.
Millennials who live at home are 18% more likely than the general population to welcome direct mail and 32% more likely to find it memorable.

The Bottom Line‍

Millennials will have a cumulative $1.4 trillion in spending power by 2020. If you’re not marketing to them with direct mail, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity and large percent of the population.

Women Have the Purchasing Power

91% of mail is picked up by the same person each day; 80% of them are women.
80% of those picking up mail (men and women alike) are the primary grocery shoppers.
Women make more than 80% of all purchasing decisions.
Women make more than 85% of all household purchases.
22% of women shop online at least once a day.

The Bottom Line‍

Design your mail with women in mind, because they will have the most interaction with it once it hits the mailbox.

It’s Easily Integrated

44% of marketers using three of more channels for their marketing efforts.
Retailers have seen a $21 million dollar difference in online sales per million site visitors between those who had received a catalog at their home address and those that had not.
For those same retailers, that translated to 163% lift.
Bobonos customers who received a catalog spend 1.5 times more than new shoppers who didn’t receive a catalog first.
Boden customers spend up to 15 to 20 minutes with their catalog, vs. an average of 8 seconds for an email and 5 minutes with their iPad app.
10.6 million catalogs were mailed in 2015.
2.5 billion coupons were redeemed in 2015.
51% prefer companies to use a combination of mail and email when communicating with them.

The Bottom Line

‍62% of people are always addressable (meaning they own and use at least three web-connected devices, go online multiple times per day, and go online from multiple physical locations). Putting a physical mail piece in front of your customers gives them a chance to collect more information and pushes them toward your website on any one of those devices.

People Notice (And Act On) It

92% of shoppers say they prefer direct mail for making purchasing decisions.
70% are curious to find out what’s in their mailbox.
74% always or sometimes notice advertising in direct mail.
42 percent of recipients read or scan mail pieces.
Direct mail household response rate is at 3.7% (compared to .2% mobile, .1% email, .1% social media, and .02% internet display).
Direct mail median household ROI is at a median of 18-20%.
At 5.0%, oversized postcards have the greatest response rate over other mediums (followed by postcards at 4.25% and dimensional mailings at 4.0%).