Direct mail is an effective marketing tool, used for more than a century to directly connect businesses with new and existing consumers. Unlike traditional broadcast media, direct mail allows users to target their desired audience by sending them unsolicited advertisements via the postal service.
More than ever before, direct mail marketers depend on gathering data from the many channels available today. With behavioral data, they can customize direct mail to consumers’ particular needs.
Here Ritter’s Printing & Packaging looks at some of the direct mail trends you can expect to see in 2022.
Sizable Postcards
Postcards have grown in popularity for marketers. Due to recent changes to USPS regulations, postcards that are 6×9 in size are qualified for Presort or Automated rates. With larger postcards, you have more room to unleash your creativity and get your message out with images, calls to action, and headlines for just a few cents more than the rates for marketing mail.
Increase in Postage Cost
The cost for postage is increasing, and despite that, direct mail will always be seen. With direct mail, you have an economical way of getting your message out to the masses and reaching the appropriate people right on time. By being smart with data, postal automation, and segmentation, you can decrease the impact of the higher postage costs. Additionally, direct mail comes with a greater response rate.
Interactive and Sensory Designs
In today’s times, captivating and focused promotions that are composed of open layouts, progressive print methods, large images, and robust calls to action increase consumer engagement. In 2022, you can expect to see more large-sized billboard/postcard mailers.
Interactive Technology Is Becoming More Popular
Encompassing relevant data-driven content as well as bolstering multi-channel engagement by way of QR codes continually brings forth better response rates across direct mail and self-mailer formats. The growth of digital print, which includes multi-dimensional digital web presses, is cost-effective when it comes to volumes ranging from just one to millions.
Tailor-made programs are also swift to market. Interactive technology is expected to continue to grow in 2022.
Informed Delivery
Campaigns using informed delivery are expected to rise significantly in 2022. The contributing factors for this increase include widespread customer acceptance and a boost in household subscribers. USPS statistics reveal that consumers’ interest in informed delivery remains steady.
The average open rates for emails are constantly overtaking the industry average which stands at more than 64%. With these types of campaigns, marketers are afforded the opportunity to magnify physical mail with cohesive digital marketing that results in added consumer engagement, impressions, and results.
Personalized Offers
Personalization is becoming more of a necessity in a competitive marketplace. Integrating full-color data print with robust content management allows you to provide incredible personalized messaging. When you have a personalized offer with captivating graphics, it’s undeniable that you will gain the attention of the recipient. Incorporating this method makes consumers feel like you specifically sent the mail to them.
Mail Insights
The most common choices for engaging with your audience include websites, apps, and social media. According to research, direct mail that encourages consumers to respond through digital mediums has skyrocketed from below 1% in the year 2000 to more than 10% in the past few years.
The 2021 digital response options show the usage of QR codes is 40%, while the usage of websites is 31.3%.
Direct Mail Made Easy with Ritter’s Printing & Packaging
The direct mail industry undoubtedly faced a challenging year in 2021. As businesses concentrate on gaining new customers while retaining their existing ones, direct mail is the best way to reach out to these customers, both existing and new. Additionally, direct mail has a greater response rate in comparison to digital mediums.
Ritter’s Printing & Packaging is a leading source for direct marketing and direct mail communications. As an industry leader, we consistently provide unrivaled quality in direct mail, print, digital marketing campaigns, and more. If you would like to learn more about how we can help you succeed, call us at 954-771-7204 today.
