Print Marketing Isn't Dead. Your Strategy Is.

Why does direct mail still work? Because you have to touch it. You see it. And then you have to decide to toss it out.

You come home, go to the mailbox, and find the weekly circular, an Every Door Direct newsletter (EDDM), a bill from the doctor’s office visit from three months ago, and a Discover Credit Card offer.

Cue the trash bin.

You might take a peak at the EDDM depending on the sender and you toss the bill into the pile of things to deal with later.

And 9 times out of ten, you’ll rip up the Discover Credit Card offer.

But even if you do, guess what: You’ll see a digital ad later that same night while catching up on the news you missed from the day.

Absent the print piece you held in your hand, the digital would have a lessor impact. It likely would not have even registered with you. But it did.

Still may not have clicked, but you now have extra recall.

This past year, I ran a multi-market campaign in some of the most competitive and noisy markets in America to drive acquisition. The play wasn’t brand, it was true acquisition.

The data was conclusive:

• Digital-Only Response Rate: 0.132%

• Print-Only Response Rate: 0.685%

• Digital & Print Response Rate: 0.811%

Not only that, but the ROI for the multi-touch campaign was more than 2x the nearest alternative.

Why is this the case? Like, what does coming home and opening the mail elicit a better response than platforms we spend the majority of our time?

According to Statista, in 2022 Direct Mail had an ROI of 43%.

We all know marketing is not an all-or-nothing practice. It’s a science and an art.

You need digital. But you also need something in the hands of your prospects. It it tough to argue the ROI of strategic integrated marketing campaigns.