7 Reasons Why Direct Mail Is More Effective Than Email Marketing

There is a time and place for email marketing. However, it’s a mistake to rely solely on email marketing for customer acquisition, customer retention, or the promotion of your products and services. In order to do these things effectively, you need to be running direct mail campaigns as well.

Direct mail has many unique benefits over email marketing. We will cover seven of them in this article. Then, to learn more about using direct mail to grow your business, contact the experts at Troi Mailing Services in Toronto.

1. Direct mail never ends up in a spam folder

The unfortunate reality of email marketing is that there’s no guarantee that your emails will actually end up in your consumer’s inbox. Instead, many emails are sent straight to the spam folder.

Consequently, the intended recipient never reads the email you put so much energy into crafting. They’ll never even see that you emailed it unless they look for it in their spam folder.

Even if the person does check their spam folder from time to time, your special offer or promotion may have expired by then. Additionally, if the recipient is a prospective customer with limited prior experience with your brand, they’re unlikely to trust your email enough to open it. No one wants a virus.

Conversely, direct mail never has viruses or ends up in a hidden folder. It’s delivered to the hands of every single one of your recipients.

2. Direct mail doesn’t require an opt-in

In Canada, you’re not allowed to send marketing emails to someone who hasn’t opted-in to your mailing list. This means that most people in your area are off-limits. Without their permission, you can’t email or text them. You can, however, send them direct mail.

Direct mail doesn’t require an opt-in. As a result, your mailers can be delivered to anyone, anywhere. You don’t have to wait for a customer to subscribe to your email list, and you won’t lose access to them if they unsubscribe to your emails. With direct mail, your target demographic is highly accessible.

Furthermore, you can send highly targeted direct mail campaigns that resonate with specific segments, further increasing your chance of success.

3. Direct mail is actually opened and read by recipients

One of the biggest flaws with email marketing is that emails frequently go unseen, unopened, and unread. However, this isn’t the case with direct mail.

Increasingly, recipients are tuning out digital advertising. Even if your marketing email is sent to their main inbox (and not the spam folder), there’s still a good chance that it will be deleted instead of opened. Email marketing campaigns often have extremely low open rates.

Direct mail, on the other hand, is always seen by recipients. After all, they have to collect their mail from the mailbox. Everyone peruses through their stack of mail to see what they’ve received and picks out important mailers.

If your direct mail piece is engaging, beautifully designed, and interesting, it will grab the recipients’ attention. They will take a closer look, read your message, and familiarize themselves with your brand during the process.

4. Direct mail has less competition

Email marketing is crowded. There is a lot of competition, which makes it that much harder to stand out. After all, people encounter an often overwhelming deluge of email marketing every day.

They can’t pay attention to every single email that they receive. And since it’s almost impossible for your brand to distinguish itself among the crowd, most promotional emails aren’t opened or read.

Conversely, direct mail has significantly less competition. People receive less marketing by mail, so you don’t have to fight against email fatigue to get your message across. In addition, people are more intrigued by direct mail because it’s less common, making them more likely to take a closer look at your mailer.

5. Direct mail provides strong response rates

Compared to other marketing methods, direct mail has some of the strongest response rates. Most industries have a clickthrough rate of less than 1.5% on their marketing emails, whereas direct mail campaigns can reach response rates of up to 10%. For instance, it’s common for not-for-profit renewal mailings to have a successful response rate of 8% to 10%.

You can also significantly increase the response rate of your direct mail campaign through segmentation and personalization. If you’re not sure how to do that, ask the experts at Troi Mailing Services. We offer variable imaging services for easy personalization, as well as data-backed mailing list management and segmentation.

6. Direct mail feels more trustworthy

Anyone can send an email. Today, it’s almost impossible to verify an email’s legitimacy. Senders of emails can be disguised, viruses can be embedded within the email, and an innocent-looking link could be a phishing scheme to acquire your information.

Essentially, emails are no longer strongly trustworthy. This makes it that much harder to get recipients to actually open your marketing emails.

Direct mail is easier to trust. After all, only legitimate businesses invest the time and resources required to run a successful direct mail campaign. Besides, no one’s home has ever gotten a virus from a postcard!

Simply receiving a professional and visually attractive direct mail piece bolsters your company’s reputation, solidifying your brand as a reputable organization in their community.

7. Direct mail has a longer lifespan

Direct mail is more enduring than email. Even if an email isn’t deleted or hidden in the spam folder, it can quickly become buried in the flood of competing emails. It’s only effective during a very narrow window: when it’s at the top of the recipient’s inbox.

This isn’t the case with direct mail. If you provide something of value, then your mailer might end up on the fridge door, in their purse, on the desk, or in the glove compartment for future use.

Recipients tend to keep well-designed, engaging, and informative direct mail pieces. This makes direct mail much more persistent and longer lasting than email. It helps keep your business top-of-mind for many weeks (if not months) to come.

Direct mail stays effective for a long time. The recipient may not take immediate action; however, they won’t forget about your brand.

Contact Troi Mailing Services for All Your Direct Mail Needs in Toronto

Direct mail still offers many advantages over email marketing. Consequently, it should play a significant role in your marketing efforts in 2024. Running a successful direct mail campaign, however, requires professional advice and execution. That’s where Troi Mailing Services comes in.

To get the most out of your upcoming direct mail campaigns, talk to our direct mail experts at Troi Mailing Services. We are a full-service mail fulfillment company in Toronto, offering strategic planning, design, printing, analysis, and more. Our team is available to help with every stage of your direct mail campaigns.

If you’re looking for a direct mail company in Toronto, Call Troi Mailing Services at 1-866-486-9350 or contact us online.