Study Shows People Prefer Direct Mail Over Email

Direct mail remains in the spotlight

Over the last few years, digital marketing has been in the spotlight and the headlines.  And I can understand that – it’s cool, and flashy and different.  New is exciting.  We like new.  But new doesn’t necessarily mean better.

Don’t get me wrong, we like digital marketing as much as the next guy.  In fact we have a full slate of digital marketing products for our clients.  But we also know, direct mail works.  Plain and simple.

As a company with over 40 years of experience in the direct mail industry, we’ve seen it all.  But this just might be the year that puts direct mail back in the spotlight.

“The Formula for Success: Preference and Trust”, a study I read about in The Huffington Post’s “Direct Mail Preferred Over Email: Survey Says” found:

Respondents prefer direct mail over email about brands or products in almost every category, including financial services (36 percent to 8 percent), insurance (36 percent to 9 percent) and travel (21 percent to 13 percent).

The article suggests that “the proliferation of email may be one reason why email is becoming less effective: 65 percent of those surveyed ‘strongly agree’ that they get too much email, and 75 percent say they get a lot of emails they never open.”

This marketer for Sony makes a good point as he compares the two, “I am a firm believer in direct mail, because it is not evasive.  I get so much e-mail every hour that it is overwhelming, but when I get my mail, I look at it.”

I tend to agree.  This also echoes what our customers have been saying for years, and still say today.

So, as a business owner, this means one thing: direct mail is still effective, if not more so, than ever.

Go ahead and check out the new, cool thing in marketing, Test and measure for a great fit for your advertising goals.  But don’t forget the tried and true …especially these days when every marketing dollar needs to deliver a return on investment.

Tell me what you think.  Are you overwhelmed by email?