DIRECT MAIL
12
PRINT.IT
01732 759725
Young people
receive
less mail
than older
groups as
advertisers
erroneously
assume they
don’t want to
receive it
The British office worker’s love/
hate relationship with paper is
laid bare in a recent survey by
Danwood. Nine out of 10 workers
questioned by the document
solutions provider said there
would always be a reason to print
documents and 80% said they
needed paper to do their jobs.
Yet, almost as many (73%) said
they were trying to reduce their
reliance on the printed page.
Digitisation should help them
to do this in relation to internal
document workflows and the
sharing of information. But what
of other uses of paper, such as
direct marketing? Switching to
e-marketing might help a business
reduce its carbon footprint and be
good PR, but does it make sense
from a commercial perspective?
A new study by Royal Mail
MarketReach suggests not.
Smart Marketing for Small
Businesses
shows that even though
email (82%), social media (62%)
and online advertising (50%) are
more popular than direct mail (46%)
for SME marketing, three quarters
of direct mail users say direct mail
delivers a good return on investment.
The same proportion believes that
consumers are more likely to retain a
printed mailshot than an email.
To help SMEs explore the
possibilities of direct mail, Royal
Mail has launched MailshotMaker,
an online tool that can be used to
design mailshots for distribution
to mailing lists created from
Royal Mail data or the user’s own
customer lists. Prices, including
printing and postage, start at 49p
plus VAT per mailshot.
Enduring appeal
A separate Royal Mail MarketReach
report,
The Life Stages of Mail
,
underlines the enduring appeal
and effectiveness of hard copy
marketing for all age groups. Its
analysis shows that the average
response rate to addressed mail
(i.e. buying or ordering) in the last
12 months is 26.7%.
The report explores how people
at all seven stages of life read,
share and respond to direct mail,
including:
n
Fledglings – young adults living
with their parents;
n
Sharers – adults living in shared
accommodation;
n
Couples – adults living only with
their partners;
n
Young Families – adults living
with child(ren) below secondary
school age;
n
Older Families – adults living with
at least one child at secondary
school or further education;
n
Empty Nesters – adults with no
children at home and at least one
still working; and
n
Older Retirees – either one
New research from Royal Mail highlights the enduring appeal of direct mail,
even among so called digital natives
Don’t give up on
paper yet
or two adults living as partners
and dependent on income from
pensions.
Its analysis shows no marked
variation in response rates between
different age groups. Indexing the
findings and taking the average
response across all age groups as
100, Royal Mail MarketReach found
that all groups were within 20 index
points of the average.
Missed opportunities
Perhaps surprisingly, Fledglings, who
tend to be characterised as digital
natives and are assumed to have
a clear preference for electronic
communications, are 18% more
likely than the general population to
welcome direct mail and 32% more
likely to find it memorable.
Almost a quarter (23%) of
Fledglings have bought or ordered
something as a result of receiving
direct mail in the last year and 31%
have kept a piece of direct mail for
future reference.
Nevertheless, Royal Mail points
out that young people receive
less mail than older groups as
advertisers erroneously assume
they don’t want to receive it or
won’t respond to it. This suggests
that businesses are missing an
opportunity to market themselves
to young people.
Choice matters
Another key finding of
The Life
Stages of Mail
report is the
importance of providing a choice of
response mechanism, as results
show that people in different life
stages like to respond to mail in
different ways (see graphic).
Royal Mail suggests that
the response levels of specific
age groups can be improved by
highlighting the channel the target
market prefers. For example, Young
Families are much more likely to
go online to make an enquiry or
request more information as a
result of receiving mail than other
life stage groups. Older recipients
are more likely to respond by post
or phone call.
The full
Life Stages of Mail
report,
including tips on how to market
to specific life stage groups,
can be downloaded from
Paul Callow,
CEO,
Cartridge World
5
Addressed mail generates response
By life stage, all groups cluster close to the average
26.7%
BOUGHT OR ORDERED FROM DIRECT
MAIL IN THE LAST 12 MONTHS*
23.3%
21.7%
26%
29.6%
26.9%
25.8%
31.7%
FLEDGLINGS
SHARERS
COUPLES
YOUNG FAMILIES
OLDER FAMILIES
EMPTY NESTERS
OLDER RETIREES
*Source: TouchPoints 6
Clearly, however, there are differences between the groups. For direct response
marketers, perhap the most important is in the channel they used to respond.
Response channel varies
Respondents to TouchPoints who said they bought or ordered something as a result
of receiving mail were asked how they responded – by post, phone, online via PC,
online via tablet or smartphone, SMS, or in a shop.
They could choose more than one channel, as they may have responded to more
than one item and/or have used a number of channels in response to one item.
Please see the chart overleaf for details.
Purchases from mail by life stage and channel
Overall, we can see that all life stage groups use multiple response channels, albeit
with certain biases.
Unsurprisingly, the older groups were more likely to say they responded by post
or phone, but not exclusively so – almost as many respond online via a PC.
Online via tablet/
smartphone
9%
10%
10%
10%
3%
3%
7%
7%
7%
6%
7%
6%
5%
5%
5%
10%
10%
11%
9%
9%
9%
8%
16%
5%
6%
14%
14%
14%
15%
23%
21%
23% 26%
30% 30%
Online via PC
Shop
Phone
Post
SMS
Older
Retirees
Empty
Nesters
Older
Families
Young
Families
Couples
Sharers
Fledglings
