Direct mail has long been a reliable marketing tool, and it’s making a comeback as marketers recognize its advantages in audience targeting. According to the 2024 Direct Mail Marketing Benchmark Report, quality audience targeting is now considered the primary advantage of mail by both B2B and B2C marketers. This rise in ranking reflects a growing appreciation for offline data and mail as a reliable prospecting and reach tool.
One of the reasons why direct mail excels at audience targeting is the use of high-quality and permissioned data sources. Marketers can use this data to build audience models and identify prospects that resemble their best customers. By leveraging individual-level transactional and intent data, marketers can create highly accurate predictive models. This level of targeting precision leads to profitable growth and higher return on investment compared to popular digital channels.
But what’s interesting is that direct mail’s audiences can also be onboarded to digital environments. In a time when third-party cookies are becoming less reliable, marketers are searching for alternative solutions. Through deterministic identity graphs, offline audiences can be linked to online identities without the need for third-party cookies. This allows marketers to deliver relevant ads across digital platforms to a specific audience. By integrating direct mail and digital marketing strategies, marketers can expand their digital reach and improve campaign effectiveness.
Another advantage of direct mail is the ability to accurately measure campaign performance. This is a notable shift in the marketer data from 2023 to 2024, with “easy to track attribution and performance metrics” rising to the second-highest advantage of mail. Just like in the direct mail channel, onboarding audience lists into digital environments allows marketers to attribute specific actions or purchases back to targeted individuals. This prospecting strategy eliminates wasted impressions and programmatic ad fraud concerns.
The future of direct mail and digital campaign integration looks promising. Nine out of 10 marketers agree that integrating direct mail and digital marketing positively impacts campaign performance. By leveraging direct mail’s proven offline models in the new era of digital marketing, marketers can achieve stronger audience targeting and improved campaign performance across all direct response channels.
In conclusion, direct mail’s top advantage lies in its ability to target the audience accurately. With the use of high-quality data sources, marketers can build audience models and reach prospects that resemble their best customers. Direct mail’s audiences can also be onboarded to digital environments, expanding reach and improving campaign effectiveness. Additionally, direct mail allows for accurate measurement of campaign performance, eliminating wasted impressions and ad fraud concerns. The integration of direct mail and digital marketing strategies is a promising trend for the future, offering stronger audience targeting and improved campaign performance.
