And for direct mailers, the immediate effect of marketing that is valued can be hard to discern. If an item of direct mail (DM) has prompted its recipient to buy something, donate money or otherwise engage with a brand, it is not always obvious, while a click-through from an email can be easily measured.

And it’s for this reason Royal Mail MarketReach’s Mailmen campaign has been received with open arms. In a weighty research document released in January The Private Life of Mail, the division tracked thousands of items of mail in an in-depth ethnographic study of 12 households and analysed thousands more academic studies.

In its latest piece of research MarketReach has examined what happens when post becomes valuable to a recipient.

This Time It’s Personal, available to download from the Mailmen website, found that valued mail generated a strong incentive to act in the recipients.

Researchers from independent agency Quadrangle asked 3,000 people to self-select up to three items of post they found valuable.

Interestingly the items chosen came from across the board.

Researchers found 92% of respondents had an emotional response to such mail, and 92% of them took action as a result. Nearly half, 42%, purchased, renewed or donated.

The mail also prompted indirect action: 37% decided to search for more information online, 33% discussed the mail with others, 29% planned a future purchase, 18% recommended the brand to friends or family, 7% posted a positive message on social media and 6% downloaded an app. A total of 73% kept the post they received for future reference.

Consultant Virginie Kan has spent 10 years in direct marketing for charities and is currently acting as interim head of retention and development at housing charity Shelter. “I think it’s very interesting research,” she says. “I’ve certainly found that while mail may be quite expensive and with declining response rates, everything has to be put into context. In the charity sector we still use DM for our ‘warm’ supporters, they must find some engagement otherwise they wouldn’t donate.

“The numbers look cost-effective in electronic communications but we find over time that when we remove DM from the marketing mix it does affect lifetime value and in particular donations. We can’t just ignore that.”

Sean Costigan, managing director of AlphaGraphics, a direct mail printer and marketing provider, agrees: “The research is useful. Anything that is making positive noises about direct mail is valuable, it’s good for us,” he says. “At least half of the cost of DM is post. Research like this is helpful to try and get people back on board and get people spending again.

“We’re heavily into multichannel stuff as well as using direct mail. We also do email marketing and personal URLs. We always find that incorporating DM into a campaign gets results. Email only gets an okay result, DM a reasonable result. When you use them together is when you get the best results.”

The research confirmed what many direct marketers already know – that preaching to the ‘warm’ converted is easier than converting ‘cold’ outsiders. Quadrangle found 85% of respondents were most likely to perceive mail as having value when it comes from an advertiser with which they have an existing relationship.

However, beyond this the research did not try to quantify how much of the mail people received was considered ‘valuable’, or why, other than it coming through an existing relationship.

This was a mistake, says Jim Lewcock, chief executive of The Specialist Works.

“If they talk about someone selecting the stuff they did value it’s not much use to me. The context is important. I don’t need to know that X per cent do this and Y per cent do that – it’s way too simplified. Anything that goes into percentages gets boring. It’s not a natural selection, it’s fugazi research.”

Costigan also has concerns.  “We’ll use the statistics when talking to clients, but it’s three out of how many hundreds of pieces of post? It would be useful to know but perhaps they didn’t want to share that information.”

So what does make direct mail valuable? Well, as Quadrangle found, an existing relationship helps. Piggybacking on someone else’s existing relationship is also useful, as Lewcock does for his clients by putting inserts into deliveries of goods bought online.

Making mail valuable is all about personalisation and relevance, he says. Marketers must use relevant personal data with their mailshots to make an impact.

“But if they are addressed ‘to the homeowner’ or my name is spelled wrong then they’ve failed. Those huge DM campaigns – frankly, you just throw them in the dustbin,” says Lewcock.

Being irrelevant is one thing, but badly targeted DM can also cause distress and offence, as anybody who has received marketing for a deceased loved one-knows. 

Earlier this month charities were forced to agree to stop trading data and to propose opt-in lists following a series of news articles about vulnerable pensioners being over-targeted after their personal details were traded between charities and commercial organisations.

“From a warm point of view DM is very important. Where it’s a problem for us is where we are purchasing cold data,” Kan adds. ‘We have to be very careful it has been properly maintained and managed.”

Getting post to the right person, then, is important to it being valued. Personalising DM is even better.

“Printers are in a unique position but need to understand their customers’ real need is to communicate relevantly across multiple channels,” says Alex Granat, commercial director of Transeo Media. “The savvy printer’s opportunity is to offer a wider service that uses data to cohesively drive personalised communications across multiple channels including email, landing pages, social media and mobile, as well as print.”

OPINION

Consumers see value when mail is personally relevant

Jonathan Harman, managing director, Royal Mail MarketReach

We’ve always known mail drives direct response for advertisers – an in-bound call, redemption or purchase. But what other benefits does it bring, and how?

Our latest research, This Time It’s Personal, helps advertisers get more from their mail.

We asked 3,000 respondents to choose pieces of mail they found useful and/or interesting. 

They chose many different types of mail: glossy brochures, catalogues, coupons, and functional items like reminders or statements.

Naturally, we dug deeper: what made valued mail useful or interesting, how did it make recipients feel, and what value did it provide for advertisers?

Consumers saw value when mail was personally relevant. Of course, appointment reminders or statements are, by definition, personal. This suggests that advertisers who treat transactional mail with marketing-led sensitivity can benefit. 

Valued mail had content that told the recipient something important to them. That might have been a discount on a product they really wanted, or a guide telling them how to do something they wanted – or needed – to do.

As a result, valued mail made them think more positively about the advertiser. 

Mail that is personally relevant also makes consumers feel something. And feelings lead to actions: 92% of respondents had an emotional response to mail they valued, of which 92% took one or more actions, such as responding directly, advocacy, sharing via social media, going online for more information or planning a purchase later. 

Cumulatively, they make a long list of both direct and delayed response, and positive brand activities.

In a sense, it’s a virtuous circle: mail consumers value generates value for the advertiser.  

For advertisers who want to maximise the value of mail, the lessons are clear: be personal, be relevant and make the recipient feel something.

READER REACTION

Is the latest MarketReach research useful for your business?

Dave Broadway, managing director, CFH Docmail

“The research is interesting and it confirms what we knew anyway but it’s not something we would normally use to approach clients with. My own view is particularly with direct mail for small businesses is they don’t know how to write the letter. The thing that would help small businesses and perhaps drive more use of DM is to say what goes into DM. It’s always that kind of thing that’s missing in the mix. The big companies have copywriters but the small companies don’t have the resources.“

Alex Granat, commercial director, Transeo Media and DMA UK, mobile and connected marketing council

“This report confirms print’s resurgence as an unrivalled engagement channel. However, the challenge remains for marketers to integrate personalised print within the mix. The savvy printer’s opportunity is to offer a wider service that uses data to cohesively drive personalised communications across multiple channels including email, landing pages, social media and mobile, as well as print.”

Jim Lewcock, chief executive, The Specialist Works

“I certainly support the principle of supporting Royal Mail but I don’t think they are playing to their strengths with this research. Agencies are totally overstretched, they are working for low margins and doing their best to cope. We’re not going to play the brand card to a 22-year-old planner, you need to use the response card. You need to plan your audience group, then plan your media channel. You need a distinction between warm and cold and addressed and unaddressed. The letterbox is a generic way in.”