The marriage of traditional and modern media with a sprinkle of behavioral science and analytics is a recipe for the future of direct mail marketing. As newer technologies like AI, VR, chatbots, and voice recognition software increasingly enter our everyday connected marketing landscape, one important question begs to be asked: Is there still a place for direct mail?

Without question! Direct mail’s response rate is actually on the rise – averaging a whopping 4.4% compared to email’s rate of 0.12%. People spend 39% more time engaging in direct mail versus digital campaigns alone. And nearly 50% of people retain direct mail for future reference.

"The Mail Moment" is a real thing with real data and statistics that prove the value of mail. From sorting and organizing to allocating and reading, the Mail Moment defines the highly interactive daily ritual that consumers devote to bringing in their mail and discovering what it offers. And these days, with less competition in the mailbox than ever before, now is the time to seize this valuable “mailbox real estate” and achieve amazing results with your campaigns.

Direct mail has come a long way since the catalogs and postcards of yesteryear. Today’s direct mail can incorporate technology features alongside print, and successfully engage its target audience.

The success and resurgence direct mail marketing is experiencing is evidenced by increased response rates and ROI figures campaigns are achieving. The formula for success includes thinking beyond tradition, integrating technology, making direct mail more experiential, and utilizing relevant messaging through variable content. All have a role in contributing to the increased success metrics of the direct mail marketing pieces and campaign.

There is a lot of marketing data available to support integration of consumer behavior analytics in seamless combination with both physical and digital workflows. The true power of customer behavior analytics lies in being able to accurately anticipate buyer behavior so that you can make relevant offers at each stage of the customer lifecycle. What better way to do this than a technology-enabled direct mail piece?

Digitally Enhanced Mail is all about adding digital technologies like AR, NFC, video-in-print, buy now, QR, etc., to create captivating experiences that launch people toward your digital properties.

  • Augmented reality is a hugely engaging medium. It creates a wide range of opportunities to make direct mail interactive by connecting the physical world with digital content.
  • Near Field Communication (NFC) uses microchip technology. NFC allows recipients to instantaneously engage with your digital content without having to download an app or open a web browser.
  • Video-In-Print allows you to embed video screens into your printed material. First impressions are everything, and having the ability to hit "play" on a page is something your consumers will not soon forget.
  • Buy Now Technology allows consumers to simply scan digitally-enabled mail to drive them to your social media platforms, and thanks to Buy Now Technology, convert them into paying customers.
  • Redesigned QR Codes can transport your customers to your website, recent blog posts, or even videos. The new wave of QR codes presents a sleeker look and allows for more branding and messaging within its design. Work a QR code into your print materials for a powerful physical-to-digital experience.

Added Value

Research shows that printed collateral continues to be a compelling and successful way to capture the attention of your target audience. However, when coupled with digital features like video, it has the capability to not only gain consumers’ attention, but most importantly, hold it. According to Adweek, 76% of companies who have used videos in the past year report a direct business impact. And 90% of customers report that product videos help them make purchasing decisions, according to HubSpot.

Let’s not forget the opportunities the US Postal Service offers with digital engagement: Informed Delivery, Informed Visibility and the 2020 promotional programs. The best news with these offers is there is no cost to participate. You combine your physical and digital communications and by participating in the promotions, you earn free postage credits. Who doesn’t like free?

Knowing the precise moment when mail is delivered helps marketers coordinate other complementary media -- sending an email, social post or search ad to support and enhance the delivery of a physical mail piece.

Consumer behavior analytics has begun to emerge—and we are still seeing a lot of growth in this space now. Consumer behavior analytics captures full engagement session details – at a much more granular level than web analytics – and allows brands to get alerts when certain behaviors are exhibited, replay sessions and view heat-maps to gain insight about usability.

Many successful marketers are utilizing these tools and the data they generate and are seeing increased response rates and campaign results by responding to these displayed behaviors. These enhance the marketer’s efforts to drive behavior, get people to notice and remember your brand/product, get them to behave/respond to certain messages and finally to purchase/pay what we want.

Testing is a key ingredient to using the data and metrics available from behavior analytics and analyzing the results generated along the spectrum from simple to sophisticated consumer behaviors based on changes to the message, media or both.

As a result of these new and innovative tools, mail has joined the connected world and is vital for the continued success, resurgence and growth the direct mail industry has always delivered. Direct mail marketing campaigns have a new cornerstone: Engaging Technology.