People still use mail, people still like mail and many businesses still send mail on a weekly basis.
Sixty-five percent of consumers still send letters and packages with nearly half (48%) of Gen Z sending mail one to two times per month. That’s according to new research from online postage and shipping vendor Stamps.com.
Why we care. Not only does mail still exist (it’s that stuff in your mailbox) but direct mail continues to play a role in marketing. The internet has not killed direct mail. If anything, it has created new ways to personalize and target it. And one advantage it has always had over email and online display is that it’s persistent. It lies around until someone bothers to throw it away and it can be seen by whole households and not just the individual blinking briefly at the screen.
It’s worth considering whether positive attitudes to mail in general extend to direct mail marketing.
Mail: The positives. Stamp.com’s sample of 500 consumers highlighted two positive aspects to mailing:
- Thirty-seven percent of consumers overall felt that mail provided a “personal touch,” with Gen X valuing that the most (41%).
- Thirty-one percent valued security and reliability of mail, especially for sending important documents. Baby boomers led the pack (40%).
But it’s not just personal. Businesses are driving mail volume, sending items on a weekly basis. Among negatives, Gen Z are frustrated by time spent waiting in line for mail services, while older consumers object to the high cost of postage.
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About the author
Kim Davis is currently editor at large at MarTech. Born in London, but a New Yorker for almost three decades, Kim started covering enterprise software ten years ago. His experience encompasses SaaS for the enterprise, digital- ad data-driven urban planning, and applications of SaaS, digital technology, and data in the marketing space. He first wrote about marketing technology as editor of Haymarket’s The Hub, a dedicated marketing tech website, which subsequently became a channel on the established direct marketing brand DMN. Kim joined DMN proper in 2016, as a senior editor, becoming Executive Editor, then Editor-in-Chief a position he held until January 2020. Shortly thereafter he joined Third Door Media as Editorial Director at MarTech.
Kim was Associate Editor at a New York Times hyper-local news site, The Local: East Village, and has previously worked as an editor of an academic publication, and as a music journalist. He has written hundreds of New York restaurant reviews for a personal blog, and has been an occasional guest contributor to Eater.
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