01732 759725
36
MAILING
Three quarters
of direct
mail users
questioned
said that
direct mail
delivers a
good return
on investment
The British office worker’s love/hate
relationship with paper is laid bare
in a recent survey by Danwood. Nine
out of 10 workers questioned by the
document solutions provider said
there would always be a reason to
print documents and 80% said they
needed paper to do their jobs. Yet,
almost as many (73%) said they were
trying to reduce their reliance on the
printed page.
Digitisation should help them do this
in relation to internal document workflows
and the sharing of information. But what
of other uses of paper, such as direct
marketing? Switching to e-marketing might
help a business reduce its carbon footprint
and be good PR, but does it make sense
from a commercial perspective?
A new study by Royal Mail MarketReach
suggests not. Three quarters of direct mail
users questioned said that direct mail
delivers a good return on investment. The
same proportion believes that consumers
are more likely to retain a printed mailshot
than an email.
Even so, digital channels remain more
popular than direct mail. According to
Royal Mail MarketReach’s new report,
Smart Marketing for Small Businesses
, the
most popular channels for SME marketing
are email (82%), social media (62%),
online advertising (50%) and direct mail
(46%). Only 16% of SMEs currently use
search marketing, with just 7% using
telemarketing.
To help SMEs explore the possibilities
of direct mail, Royal Mail has launched
MailshotMaker, an online tool that can be
used to design mailshots for distribution to
mailing lists created from Royal Mail data
or the user’s own customer lists. Prices,
including printing and postage, start at 49p
plus VAT per mailshot.
Enduring appeal
A separate Royal Mail MarketReach
report,
The Life Stages of Mail
, underlines
the enduring appeal and effectiveness of
hard copy marketing for all age group. Its
analysis shows that the average response
rate to addressed mail (i.e. buying or
ordering) in the last 12 months is 26.7%.
The report explores how people at
all seven stages of life read, share and
respond to direct mail, including:
n
Fledglings
– young adults living with
their parents;
n
Sharers
– adults living in shared
accommodation;
n
Couples
– adults living only with their
partners;
n
Young Families
– adults living with
child(ren) below the age of secondary
school;
n
Older Families
– adults living with
at least one child at secondary school or
further education;
n
Empty Nesters
– adults with no children
at home and at least one still working; and
n
Older Retirees
– either one or two
adults living as partners and dependent on
Don’t give up
on paper yet
New research from Royal Mail highlights the enduring appeal
of direct mail, even among so called digital natives
income from pensions.
Its analysis shows no marked variation
in response rates between different age
groups. Indexing the findings and taking
the average response across all age groups
as 100, Royal Mail MarketReach found
that all groups were within 20 index points
of the average.
Missed opportunities
Perhaps surprisingly, Fledglings, who tend
to be characterised as digital natives and
are assumed to have a clear preference
for electronic communications, are 18%
more likely than the general population to
welcome direct mail and 32% more likely
to find it memorable.
Almost a quarter (23%) of Fledglings
have bought or ordered something as a
result of receiving direct mail in the last
year and 31% have kept a piece of direct
mail for future reference.
Nevertheless, Royal Mail points out that
young people receive less mail than older
groups as advertisers erroneously assume
they don't want to receive it or won't
respond to it. This suggests that businesses
are missing an opportunity to market
themselves to young people.
Choice matters
Another key finding of
The Life Stages of
Mail
report is the importance of providing
a choice of response mechanism, as results
show that people in different life stages
like to respond to mail in different ways
(see graphic).
Royal Mail suggests that the response
levels of specific age groups can be
improved by highlighting the channel
the target market prefers. For example,
Young Families are much more likely to
go online to make an enquiry or request
more information as a result of receiving
mail than other life stage groups. Older
recipients are more likely to respond by
post or phone call.
Addressed mail generates response
By life stage, all groups cluster close to the average
26.7%
BOUGHT OR ORDERED FROM DIRECT
MAIL IN THE LAST 12 MONTHS*
23.3%
21.7%
26%
29.6%
26.9%
25.8%
31.7%
FLEDGLINGS
SHARERS
COUPLES
YOUNG FAMILIES
OLDER FAMILIES
EMPTY NESTERS
OLDER RETIREES
*Source: TouchPoints 6
Clearly, however, there are differences between the groups. For direct response
marketers, perhaps the most important is in the channel they used to respond.
6
Purchases from mail by life stage and channel
Overall, we can see that all life stage groups use multiple response channels, albeit
with certain biases.
Unsurprisingly, the older groups w re more likely to say they responded by post
or phone, but not exclusively so – almost as many respond online via a PC.
But the people most likely to use digital channels to respond were in the Young
Families group – not the younger ‘digital natives’.
There are two clear implications.
First, since response can come via a variety of channels, mailers need to ensure
that, regardless of channel or life stage target group, they make the journey to
respond as seamless as possible. However, mail sent to specific groups can be
improved by highlighting the channel(s) they are more likely to use.
The second is that the real response rate – and ultimately value – of any mail
campaign, has to be measured across a width of channels, not just one or two.
In the following sections we describe some of the charact ristics of each group and
offer some tips that may help guide better targeted and more effective executions.
Online via tablet/
smartphone
9%
10%
10%
10%
3%
3%
7%
7%
7%
6%
7%
6%
5%
5%
5%
10%
10%
11%
9%
9%
9%
8%
16%
5%
6%
14%
14%
14%
15%
23%
21%
23% 26%
30% 30%
Online via PC
Shop
Phone
Post
SMS
Older
Retirees
Empty
Nesters
Older
Families
Young
Families
Couples
Sharers
Fledglings
The full
Life Stages
of Mail
report,
including tips on how
to market to specific
life stage groups, can
be downloaded from
