The findings below are a couple of years old.  But they show a trend that is only growing as the population ages and we are inundated more and more by electronic messages.

• According to the United States Postal Service 2007 Household Diary Study, 80% of households read or scan advertising mail.

• In a 2008 survey sponsored by the Direct Marketing Association and Pitney Bowes, 39% of respondents said they tried a business for the first time because of  direct mail advertising, and 70% said they renewed a business relationship because of a direct mail promotion.

• An iProspect study conducted in 2007 found that 67% of online searches were driven by offline messages, resulting in purchases 39% of the time.  In addition, shoppers who receive a direct mail piece directing them to an online site spend, on average, 13% more than those who do not receive a printed piece.

I know that many of us are still lured in by the low cost of email marketing and internet advertising.  However, when you measure the ROI by the $ amount spent divided the number of responses, you’ll see that, most of the time, your per prospect cost is higher than traditional direct mail.

With direct mail, we can work to improve those response rates by adding QR codes or pURLS to convert your campaign into a cross media effort.

The long and short of this is that direct mail still works. Use it.  You’ll be happy with the results.