Content is king. However, not all content is created equal. For instance, while you might be tempted to launch an email campaign for your next marketing push, real letters beat electronic ones every day of the week. Customers will remember the physical experience longer than any digital alternative. As a matter of fact, direct mail tends to stick around for 28 days after it lands and is revisited at least 27% of the time, according to the Direct Marketing Association. So, counterintuitive as it might seem, getting physical may actually drive more clients to your website.
Moreover, it doesn’t need to cost an arm and a a leg. In today’s world, smart devices have enabled people to seamlessly connect their direct mail item to any form of digital content. This development has made marketing professionals focus more on print mail as a key part of their communication strategy. Although the number of print mail sent is down the use of print mail to improve ROI is on the up.
If we look at statistics by Proactive Marketing, the marketing agency, 74 trillion emails are sent each year in the UK, compared to 13.8 billion direct mailings – this is largely because the cost of sending an email is lower. However, the sheer volume of emails being received by consumers means that open rates are low at 26.91% on average in Europe, according to GetResponse’s, the online marketing platform, Email Marketing Benchmarks report covering the last two quarters of 2018. Compare that to the Direct Marketing Association’s research that found that direct mail is opened 57.1% of the time and is revisited later by at least a quarter of recipients.
These stats highlight a great opportunity for marketeers – to use physical mails to boost your branding. As the statistics show, if you start your campaign with a physical piece of content that has a clear digital call to action, your campaign will stand a better chance to return more on your investment. Printed mail will therefore deliver your digital content larger audiences and generate more of a return.
You can easily incentivise your target audience using a code for a discount or sign up to gain a first-time exclusive offer. The use of augmented reality is adding another dimension to printed mail, giving you a more integrated experience when using a physical piece of mail with your smartphone.
Print mail is more expensive to create than an email but the return is better. This coupled with today’s printing technology like the new Iridesse digital press from Xerox allowing for amazing results at lower costs. You can even save resource, time and budget by outsourcing the whole campaign from print, mail fulfilment and postage to a mailing house that provides one-stop-shops for all your mailing needs.
Truly getting physical in a virtual world could not be any easier with the ability to cut through the noise and deliver your brand message in the palm of your customers hand, plus be able to measure results accurately using digital call to actions. 
