Pitney Bowes surveyed 10,000 people as part of a pan-European study that took in such as the UK, Germany, France and Scandinavian countries.
According to the report, 60% of those interviewed felt that marketing such as addressed mail was more effective in prompting a visit to a company's website, compared with 24% who felt an e-mail, website advert or sponsored link was a stronger means to inspire a first visit.
On a more in-depth level, direct marketing was seen as being more effective at creating consumer traffic than digital advertising across all the age groups surveyed.
Of those questioned, 67% of consumers in the 35-44 age bracket were most likely to visit and consider a purchase following receipt of an offline message.
Gareth Stoten, general manager of Pitney Bowes DMT in the UK and Ireland, said: "These figures demonstrate how critically important it is for businesses to find the right marketing mix.
"Online channels such as social networking are a hot topic, but it is the traditional print and mail channels that are driving people to make web purchases."
Direct marketing more effective at driving online traffic, new research claims
Direct marketing applications such as direct mail are more than twice as likely to drive UK customer traffic to company websites as digital marketing, according to new research.
