Joy Gendusa

Joy is the Founder and CEO of PostcardMania. After more than seventeen years of leading one of the most innovative and successful postcard marketing companies in the industry, Joy has obtained a level of marketing expertise that is sought after for counsel and speaking engagements all over the country. But here at the Maniac Marketing Blog, you get her knowledge at absolutely no cost to you. She will be dropping by often to share wisdom and experience on a wide range of topics, from direct mail to business management, and even email marketing and website development. Read More

11 Statistics That Show Direct Mail Increases Your ROI

Updated on September 1, 2022 by Joy Gendusa

Subscribe to the Maniac Marketing Blog.

From The Small Business Owner’s 2022 Economic Relief Guide

When was the last time you took a closer look at every marketing channel you use and calculate each one’s return on investment?

You could argue assessing your marketing results is the most important aspect of managing a business — you need to know where the money is flowing from so that you can invest in the most profitable areas, aka increase your return on investment or ROI.

The information you discover about your own business is invaluable, but did you also know that a lot of research has already been done to determine which marketing avenues have the highest return? A large portion of data reveals that direct mail actually brings in more revenue than many other forms of advertising, even digital ads.

In this article, you’ll find 11 statistics backed up by research that show direct mail has a significant influence on how much profit a business generates.

You can even look beyond the stats listed below and read our case study library that details hundreds of examples of companies that spent a small portion of their budget on postcards or letters and received huge ROIs! In some cases, the business made tenfold the return.

You can check out our case study library featuring over 700 marketing success stories here.

Then take a look at these 11 statistics:

In one PostcardMania case study, a dermatologist mailed 12,000 postcards to residences in their local area and made $22,500 in profit, more than doubling their ROI of 239%. PostcardMania (2022)
Respondents reported an 18% greater ROI when marketing campaigns incorporated direct mail. Marketing Charts (2020)
25% of people bought something as a result of receiving mail in the past 12 months. Royal Mail MarketReach (2020)
4 out of 10 people (40%) responded to direct mail and donated online. Dunham + Company (2020)
65% of households with incomes of $100k or more said they made a purchase in the past 30 days because of direct mail advertising. Valassis (2020)
Over 60% of marketers say direct mail has the highest ROI. Compere Media (2019)
Direct mail recipients purchased 28% more items and spent 28% more money than people who didn’t get the piece of direct mail. USPS (2018)
A third of mail pieces led to some kind of commercial action, and a third of them were shared with other people. JICMAIL (2018)
A Brand Science review of multi-channel campaigns concluded that when mail was included in the marketing mix, campaigns had a 12% bigger ROI than those without mail. Royal Mail (2017)
Direct mail generates 10% more customers than email (34% direct mail, 24% email). Direct Marketing Association (2016)
62% of consumers who responded to direct mail in the past 3 months made a purchase. InfoTrends (2016)