How Direct Mail Delivers in the Age of Digital Marketing
New research shows that running direct mail campaigns can be a winning strategy and help brands cut through the clutter to reach consumers experiencing digital fatigue.
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Marketers have spent billions on targeted digital ads. But are digital marketing channels delivering enough impact to justify their rising costs in an era saturated with online ads and perpetually scrolling feeds? As consumer ad fatigue accelerates and privacy changes erode many of digital tracking’s advantages, returns on ad spend for such channels are dipping to historic lows. Direct mail, once seen as an old-fashioned medium, is reemerging as a powerful complement to digital.
When programmatic digital advertising rose to prominence in the mid-2010s, it promised pinpoint targeting based on user data, with a low barrier to entry and easily tracked conversions. However, the channel is losing its luster. Costs per click have steadily increased for both Facebook and Google, even as click-through rates on many social platforms have stagnated.
These trends are raising alarms for CMOs looking for new ways to connect with consumers and for CFOs looking at ballooning digital budgets and questioning the plateauing returns. And they are setting the stage for the rediscovery of direct mail. Far from a relic of the 20th century, direct mail can achieve impressive engagement and persist for days on a kitchen counter, whereas a banner ad disappears as a user scrolls past it, research has found.
The resurgence of direct mail is not merely a reaction to digital saturation; it reflects an understanding of how tactile experiences are able to break through noise. Sophisticated marketers — including retailers such as Free People, J.C
References
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