Lob and Comperemedia partnered and published The 2023 State of Direct Mail: Consumer Insights report. This report unveils consumer data and actionable insights from a survey of 2,000 consumers aged 18+ to understand their usage, preferences, and engagement with direct mail.
The study shows that the most likely read direct mail formats for healthcare are:
42% – Letters and Envelopes
40% – Brochures
32% – Postcards
24% – Magazines & Catalogs
A recent study conducted by Epsilon revealed that direct mail influences holiday purchases for 77% of shoppers. By comparison, just 41% of respondents say online banner ads influence their decisions. #DirectMailWorks
We have a local stables as a client. We manage their website, do their social media and email marketing, and supply them with signs and other printing. They asked us to help boost sales for their summer camps and we turned to direct mail for the answer.
First we pulled a list within a 5-mile radius of the stables. We selected families with a presence of children aged 5-15yrs, and an annual household income of $175K +. That netted 2,585 addresses.
We created a 6X11 postcard highlighting the camps. Camps are sold for $499 per child. Cost to purchase the list, create, print, and fulfill the mailing, with postage totaled $1,200.00. Our client received 19 summer camp registrations from the mailer, that totaled $9,481.00 in sales. That represents a 790% Return. No matter how you look at it, Direct Mail Works.
The direct mail advertising market is expected to grow from $42.79 billion in 2021 to $46.33 billion in 2026, and reach $47.93 billion in 2031. The benefits associated with direct mail advertising are contributing to the growth of this lucrative market.
Source: The Business Research Company
Based on a recent Faith Communities Today survey, small to mid-sized churches are finding that half of the country’s congregations have 65 or fewer people in attendance on any given weekend. That’s a drop from a median attendance level of 137 people in 2000.
Produced by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, the FACT survey consists of self-reported questionnaires sent out to congregational leaders every five years since 2000.
Congregations with 1,500+ people in attendance were able to avoid decline; 71% of those large churches grew over the past five years. Larger churches tend to have full-time clergy, greater financial and physical resources and a diversity of ages and races among members.
However, smaller churches tend to have higher levels of member commitment, parishioners give more money per person, and are more likely to volunteer. These churches spend less on staffing and give the highest percentage of their budget toward missions and charity.
Churches with more than 250 attendees account for 10% of all U.S. congregations, yet host close to 60% of all weekly churchgoers.
With a larger number of parishioners comes a decline in per capita giving, willingness to volunteer, and a lower overall level of participation within the congregation.
As large gatherings continue to raise safety issues, determining how to draw existing and new members to churches remain a priority for leaders. Engagement with participants and the community surrounding the church are essential in attracting individuals to worship.
Direct mail is a great way to connect with your congregation and community. Invite your neighbors to join your smaller group gatherings such as bible studies, or support groups.
Using direct mail to notify your parishioners about upcoming events, or sending a saturation mailing to every household within a certain radius is an excellent way to increase participation. Direct Mail Works!
#DirectMailWorks
Amazon has gone into the digital advertising business and now represents one of their fastest-growing and most profitable sectors.
Initially, the mighty merchant frowned on this type of advertising fearing it may clutter their site and alienate shoppers. However, they own 10.7% of the $191 billion US digital ad market today.
More and more people are bypassing Google and using Amazon as a search engine to find products. Today Google owns 28.8% of the market, down from 73.1% in 2019.
Amazon is taking ad business from Facebook too. In June, Apple introduced privacy changes on iPhones that have rendered Facebook & Instagram ads significantly less effective. The Apple feature known as App Tracking Transparency (ATT) forces developers to ask for consent before their apps can track users. Facebook launched an aggressive campaign against Apple claiming ATT will hurt the open internet and small businesses. Facebook is warning that customers who opt out of tracking will be excluded from specific targetable audiences, which will result in a decrease in audience sizes.
Many companies are reluctant to market on Amazon because they can lose the direct connection with their consumers. However, marketers are reporting significant declines in the performance of their Facebook ads which is sending big brands on the hunt for alternative options. As Amazon has an estimated 153 million Prime subscribers, it’s a platform that may be worth the risk.
Big brands are redirecting their digital ad budgets to other means of marketing that include incorporating social-media influencers and returning to more traditional channels like direct mail.
Direct mail has its own woes right now as postage and shipping rates are increasing at record levels, and paper shortages are causing the cost to implement direct mail campaigns to rise.
As our personal and business lives slowly begin to ease up on the unprecedented restrictions we have been living with for over a year now, it is time to “lift the mask” and engage again. Your existing customers need to hear from you, and it is time to start the search for new clients too.
We are all in uncharted territory, trying to find footing on something that, at least resembles, solid ground. The best way to do that is to reach out and reconnect with your clients.
Marketing your business is essential, and it is not expensive. There are so many channels in which to converse with existing and potential clients today, make sure your business is using them and reaping the rewards.
We are BEB (Business Extension Bureau). Take a tour of website and see the many marketing services we offer. We hope that you will consider using us to “lift the mask and engage” through marketing in the coming year.
The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the financial, operational, and service performances of the USPS. Here’s how:
Employee Availability
The cumulative number of employees quarantined reached 19.1%, while non-career employee turnover rate hit 40%.
Transportation
Lack of airplane and truck capacity, and industry competition for both, disrupted the supply chain and transportation resources particularly during the holiday season
Shift in Mail/Package Composition
A dramatic decline in First Class Mail combined with an unprecedented package volume increase of 40%
The postal service continued to deliver to its 160 million address client base throughout 2020. However, constraints in processing and transportation networks prevented timely and consistent arrival of product.
Package delivery is expected to continue to rise in the coming decade. While this dynamic will create strong opportunities for the Postal Service and may leverage it to be even
more relevant, it also requires significant changes to its operating model. In the coming months we are anxious to learn what USPMG Louis DeJoy’s 10-year vision for the postal will be.
Earlier this year, newly appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testified in front of a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. He was brought to the pillory to answer for changes made to the USPS that included cutting overtime and limiting post office hours, which caused politicians and postal workers across the country to hit a panic button. These very reasonable directives are necessary as DeJoy will attempt to turn-around the, often-misunderstood, health of the US Postal Service.
The USPS is an independent agency of the executive branch of the federal government and is not funded by appropriations. However, it is not independent of rule from the government. Back in 2006, Congress passed a law that guaranteed the entity would continually face a financial battle by passing the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. The PAEA requires the Postal Service to pre-fund its post-retirement health care costs, 75 years into the future. This extraordinary financial burden applies to no other federal agency or private corporation.
If the costs of the retiree health care mandate were removed from the USPS financial statements, the Post Office would have reported operating profits in each of the last six years. Many people may be surprised to learn that in the third quarter of fiscal 2020, the Postal Service reported an increase in total revenue of 3.2% compared to the same period last year. Credit goes to the increase of shipping and package delivery due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and we anticipate the trend to continue given the surge in e-commerce. The PAEA retirement mandate created a financial “crisis” that has been used to skew public perception of the postal service and allows politicians to “throw rocks” at those who do understand the real challenges facing the USPS today.
Moving the mail is all about logistics. Making the entity that delivers the mail more efficient and streamlined will decrease delivery time, keep product pricing down, and just might allow the largest transportation fleet in the world to grow into an amazing success story.
For over 30-years USPS leaders have been searching for ways to sort and process mail using more automation and increase the amount of time carriers spend delivering mail. It is simply ludicrous when politicians claim that the closure of a rural post office will delay delivery of prescriptions or imply that five-day delivery is somehow denying citizens their right to receive mail. As with any organization that needs to become current and profitable, we must all keep an open mind on ways the USPS can successfully operate throughout the 2020’s.
After sitting on the Washington DC hot seat, DeJoy suspended many of his controversial changes and promised not to make any more until after the November elections. Rest assured that mail is being delivered and marketing via direct mail remains a viable and money-making way to market. We will keep you abreast of the latest happenings as they unfold.
Eric Streiff wrote an amazing blog for Philanthropy Daily about fundraising during a crisis. Check it out below:
Regardless of the crisis around us, nonprofits must continue to communicate with their constituents and also fundraise. Based on decades of experience and evidence, direct mail remains one of the most effective ways to stay in touch, communicate, and fundraise—even in a time of great uncertainty.
It is a proven marketing fact that organizations that chose to forge ahead during a crisis were typically more successful in the long run when compared to organizations that paused, stopped, or significantly altered communication, particularly fundraising appeals.
Direct mail is an incredibly effective way to stay in touch with your donors and help keep your organization top-of-mind. Read this blog in its entirety here.