• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, December 11, 2024

That venerable medium, direct mail, is enjoying a renaissance, judging by a new study from Winterberry Group: Delivering Performance—Direct, Digital And The Dynamics Shaping The Future of Omnichannel Marketing.

U.S. brands will grow their spending on direct mail by an estimated 2.6% in 2024 for a total of $37.3 billion. This reverses 2023’s double-digit spending decline, although the number still hasn’t hit the $41.9 billion investment in that post-pandemic year of 2022.  

However, 80% plan to spend more on direct mail in 2025. 

“While it’s true that postage rate increases have had a clear impact on direct mail activity, volume trends tell only a small part of the story of how brands are investing in this pioneering data-driven media channel,” said Jonathan Margulies, managing partner, Winterberry Group, and lead author of the report.

“Brands have increasingly been working to deploy direct mail in concert with their omnichannel marketing programs -- not just in digital media, but also in offline media and CTV [connected television] The ‘mail moment’ is being driven today by a number of these marketing investments, among other marketplace drivers.”

Email is a key part of this media mix.

Of the companies surveyed, 55% avail themselves of Informed Delivery, a U.S. Postal Service program that provides household subscribers with “a daily email preview of their incoming mail; offers commercial mailers opportunity to promote/amplify their mail pieces via digital touchpoint,” the study says.  

“Direct mail is no longer an afterthought but a strategic driver in omnichannel approaches when integrated effectively. A test-and-learn approach— such as identifying the right combination of touchpoints, whether one email, two mail pieces, or a billboard—can significantly enhance outcomes.” 

Meanwhile, Margulies notes that the key drivers of higher direct mail spending include the growing investment in overall marketing spend, supported by macroeconomic growth.

“While silos among media channels are diminishing, there remains for many marketers an ‘attribution gap’ when direct mail is deployed in the media mix,” Margulies says. “In addition, while machine learning and AI [artificial intelligence] may have long-term disruptive potential, most of today’s most significant gains are being generated through innovative tactics that have been in the works for some time – leveraging techniques such as retargeting based on digital media, third-party marketing tech integration, direct mail triggers and QR codes.”

These are the potential investments that would best help marketers utilize the direct mail channel:

• Greater integration of direct mail in cross-channel media measure/attribution effort — 52%
• Greater integration with other channels in planning and budgeting — 49%
• Greater orchestration of direct mail execution with other channels (omnichannel) — 48%
• More allocation of marketing budget to direct mail channel — 47%
• Enhanced education of internal stakeholders about direct mail and its benefits — 43%
• Senior level/organizational buy-in — 26%

Meanwhile, direct mail marketers seek more from their vendors—specifically, initiatives that would help them derive value from their investment:

• Better support for measurement/attribution — 41%
• Support integrating with third-party marketing technology — 40%
• Help identifying best practices/innovations—40%
• More support for data sourcing, management and segmentation — 39%
• More support for workflow and production automation/increased speed to market — 37%
• Enhanced creative development — 29%
• Longer lead times for notices of USPS promotions — 27%

Winterberry Group conducted this research from September to December of this year.

It consists of interviews with senior executives, plus a survey of more than 200 client-side marketers. The report is presented by the U.S. Postal Service.