Direct mail is making a comeback

We’re all fed up of looking at screens, with virtual meetings, with the explosion of ads across multiple channels.

In fact, the average person sees 10,000 ads each day – a number widely debated across the marketing industry, but the point is, most of us are flooded with marketing messages. This means that digital ads are losing their efficacy, particularly when coupled with targeting issues, impending loss of cookies and lack of control over social channels (those are for another time!).

So it’s no surprise that direct mail is seeing a resurgence. It’s a channel that cuts through the noise in a noisy digital world. And the stats support.

According to the Data & Marketing Association (DMA), engagement in direct mail is increasing – in 2019, consumers engaged with 91% of all direct mail. By 2020, this figure had increased to 96%.

It also drives post-door drop activity. As a direct result of receiving mail, 92% have been driven to online or digital activity and 87% have been influenced to make online purchases. And it’s not just for older demographics – 95% of 18-29-year-olds have had a positive response to receiving mail.

How can Herdify improve direct mail?

Think about how long a piece of mail sits in your house. In some cases – and no judgement here! – it may lie on the table for up to a month. That’s a month’s worth of nudging the recipient, plus all of the other people who might visit, creating further impressions.

Door drops become hugely powerful when coupled with word-of-mouth influence. When someone has received a positive recommendation from someone in their network (or multiple people), they are much more likely to act on that recommendation.

The problem is that as humans, we’re forgetful. Think of this scenario. A parent friend recommends a children’s bike brand, while you’re out with the children in a park. By the time you get home, you’ve forgotten the brand that they recommended, even though while you were in the park, you were ready to purchase.

Then an ad drops through the door. Not only does it remind you of that conversation in the park, but it sits on the kitchen counter as a reminder until your partner purchases the bike. It also prompts two other conversations with other parents – one who recommends the bike and reinforces the original recommendation, and one who you recommend the bike to.

We worked with a leading consumer brand to hyper-target their door-drop campaigns. We identified where they already had strong word-of-mouth influence, and recommended a set of locations to target for door drops. They increased online purchases by 192% in those areas.

To get started on a door-drop strategy with us, get in touch with one of the team.

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Ignite your brand power: Why your offline community is the real influencer

“Social communities grow more powerfully offline, yet most marketing tactics tap into the online element. 92% of word-of-mouth – the single biggest influence on consumer buying behaviour – happens offline."

~ Ed Barter, Lead data scientist at Herdify

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