6% of mail, including direct mail, business mail, partially addressed mail and door drops, prompted a purchase in Q1 2024, up from 4.2% in Q1 2023. 46% of these purchases were fulfilled online, with 32% in store.
In total, 38% of the visits to advertiser websites prompted by mail converted into online purchases.
The average piece of business mail was interacted with 4.7 times over a 28-day period, direct mail 4.4 times, partially addressed mail 4.1 times, and door drops 3.1 times.
The average lifespan in the home was 8.3 days for business mail, seven days for direct mail, 6.3 days for PAM, and 5.8 days for door drops.
The average piece of direct mail was looked at for 134 seconds across 28 days, door drops 55 seconds, business mail 175 seconds, and partially addressed mail for 92 seconds.
The cost of generating a minute of ABC1 Adult attention now stands at £0.11 for direct mail and £0.07 for door drops, a better rate of attention efficiency than with both social and digital display according to JICMail.
Furthermore, the amount of mail being filed away in the home reached a three-year high in Q1 2024. One fifth of mail is now being actively retained in the home by being filed away by consumers, including financial statements, notifications and reminders, and special offers.
The NHS, Santander, FarmFoods and The Conservative Party commanded a disproportionately large share of attention compared to their share of mail volumes in Q1 2024, which JICMail said highlighted the importance of mail creative and content when optimising mail efficiency and effectiveness.
The ability to now track whether mail is received by existing customers on the JICMail panel found that Hello Fresh, ROL Cruises, and the AA were among the most prominent users of cold direct mail in Q1 2024.
Ian Gibbs, JICMail director of data leadership and learning, said: “Mail has continued to prove its impact at the sharp end of the consumer purchase funnel in Q1.
“Despite Google once again delaying the death of third-party cookies, savvy marketers will be adapting their measurement efforts to reduce reliance on last-click-attribution models and instead move towards full-effect measurement techniques.
“The JICMail panel now reports on a range of omni-channel purchase actions, painting a fuller, more accurate picture of mail effectiveness.”
JICMail data is gathered from a panel of 1,000 households every month. The mail activity of every household member is tracked using a diary-based app. Every mail item they receive over the course of a week is captured and everything they do with that mail item over the course of a month is recorded.
