• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, February 11, 2022

Sometimes it pays to look at how the other half lives. Direct mail -- the channel that was first sent by horse in the early 1800s -- is enjoying a comeback, in part because of the tools developed by 21st-century email marketers. 

What’s more, the channels work well together, according to The State of Direct Mail 2022, a study from Lob, a direct-mail personalization platform, in partnership with Comperemedia. 

Lob claims that direct-mail response hits north of 27% when the two are combined. That’s one reason brands are “integrating direct mail into their existing omnichannel strategy with email, marketing automation, and data from their CRMs,” the company says.

It's important to note, however, that this is a survey of 170 marketing executives who work for firms that send over 500 million direct-mail pieces per year. While only 5% use direct mail as a stand-alone tactic, this study is not abut digital media.  

Of those polled, 80% send some form of personalized direct mail. That includes 46% of firms in ecommerce, who report sending specialized imagery. 

And 50%+ personalize the type of mail they send (letters versus postcards, for example) or the text/copy. 

Moreover, software/tech platforms are utilized by 51% when conducting campaigns. 

The respondents use direct mail for:

• Existing customers — 29%
• New customer acquisition — 27% 
• Advocacy/referrals — 22%
• Dormant/churn winback — 21%

Still, direct mailers face many challenges, including: 

• Poor response rate — 32% 
• Workflow complexities — 31%
• Lack of personalization & customization — 32%

Many are playing catch-up. For instance, those who use technology are “possibly transforming old legacy processes to enable personalization and analytics,” the study notes. 

How do they work? Of this sample, 42% work with in-house teams who write/design campaigns, and 33% use an agency for various parts of the strategy/design/execution.  

Let’s look at what emailers can teach direct-mail specialists. 

As with email, “every mail piece should be completely customizable, with images, text, layout, and a variety of different form factors,” the study says.  

It also points out that direct mail “needs to be triggerable so marketers can send a welcome postcard when a customer makes their first purchase, or send out a promo code when an existing customer hasn’t ordered in 30 days, or a birthday card on their birthday — if you can trigger it in email, you should be able to trigger it in direct mail.”