By Neil Patel

In an increasingly digital world, direct mail seems old and boring.

You wouldn’t drive a horse-drawn carriage to work or use a pager to contact your friends, would you?

Of course not.

Direct mail feels outdated.

But direct mail is still a great way to reach your audience, grab their attention, and connect with them on a personal level.

In 2016, The Data & Marketing Association reported that the direct mail customer response rate increased by 43%. Even better, the prospect response rate increased by 190% compared to 2015.

Many marketers are in shock.

But the data is undeniable.

Direct mail is still effective, and using it is a game-changer for any serious marketer.

Here are 13 reasons why direct mail still isn’t dead.

1. Direct Mail has a High ROI

Would it surprise you if I said that direct mail gives you more bang for your buck than paid search and online display ads?

Well, it does.

Direct mail has a median ROI of 29%, putting the ROI in third behind email and social media marketing in terms of ROI. Social media is ahead by only 1 percentage point.

That might not seem very high, but when you consider that paid search has an ROI of 23% and online display at 16%, that number looks a lot more attractive.

Are you curious about what your direct-mail ROI could become? You can go here to calculate it.

That baffling ROI says nothing of direct mail’s response rate, which is 5.3% for mail sent to houses and 2.9% for prospect lists.

Now compare that number to email, which has an average click-through rate of about 2% or 3%. And that’s the click-through rate, not the response rate, which is 0.6%.

Despite what the haters say, direct mail is still holding its own against other marketing channels.

2. Direct Mail Works Great with a Digital Marketing Strategy

Every great marketing strategy uses multiple channels.

Smart marketers wouldn’t run only Facebook Ads and call it a day.

They’d consider running Instagram ads, do paid search campaigns, and even use search engine optimization to increase traffic.

While you shouldn’t invest only in direct mail, you should consider it part of your marketing bag of tricks.

97th floor in Utah combined direct mail and digital marketing to increase loyalty with their clients.

First, they sent out a direct mailer to all of their clients with a holiday poem and a $20 bill with a scannable code next to it.

Endearing, right? But the beauty is when you flip over the card and look at the left-hand …read more

Source:: Kiss Metrics Blog

Author: Aaron