Brands race to embrace mail as confidence returns

Brands big and small have propelled mail volumes to their highest level since 2020, signalling a rise in post-Covid advertiser confidence in the channel as it maintains the effectiveness benchmarks established during the height of the pandemic.

That is the standout conclusion of the latest Jicmail report for Q1 2022, based on data captured from a panel of 1,000 households every month.

It shows that over 12,500 mail items were tracked by panellists across direct mail, door drops, business mail and partially addressed mail, taking the entire Jicmail database to just under 230,000 items.

Combined with the recent news from Royal Mail’s financial results that the volume of advertising mail grew by 30% in the 12 months up to the end of March 2022, Jicmail chiefs reckon confidence is mail is sky high.

The top ten advertisers account for 23% of all mail volumes in Q1 2022, up from 21% a year ago, further reinforcing that some of the largest marketing budget holders in the UK are back on board.

Despite a squeeze on household budgets, challenging trading conditions and an overall decline in marketing effectiveness, as reported by the DMA, the mail channel has continued to maintain the effectiveness benchmarks established during the pandemic.

Some 5% of mail (across direct mail, business mail, door drops and partially addressed mail) prompted consumers to look up their account details in Q1 2022, and 4% prompted a purchase.

Business mail continues to be the most effective mail channel used to shift the dial on customer experience metrics: 9% prompted account look ups compared to 4% of direct mail. However, business mail has also proven itself to be an effective revenue driver, with the 6% prompting a purchase being a comparable figure to direct mail.

From Q1 2022, Jicmail will start to report key mail media metrics for partially addressed mail through its data portal Jicmail Discovery. It is claimed that partially addressed mail generates four times as many ad impressions as mail volumes, and the average mail piece stays in the home for 6.6 days.

Mail interactions captured by Jicmail panellists take many forms and range from opening and reading mail, to passing it on to someone else, putting it in the usual place, putting aside to look at later or taking it out of home (amongst a list of many other actions). In addition, Jicmail captures the industry category and advertiser details of almost every mail item in its nearly 230,000 strong mail item database.

Jicmail director of data leadership and learning Ian Gibbs said: “The rising cost of living and an unstable geopolitical situation doesn’t exactly make a fertile ground for marketing effectiveness, with consumer response arguably much harder to come by now than it was even during the pandemic.

“It’s encouraging to see the mail channel continue to maintain its effectiveness therefore – effectiveness that has been rewarded by continued growth in mail volumes as the largest brands in the UK continue to show confidence in the mail channel’s ability to deliver on their marketing objectives.”

Jicmail engagement director Mark Cross added: “It is encouraging to see the Covid era uplift in the full ‘funnel’ effects of mail continue to be sustained. These recent trends in the Jicmail data provide users with fresh evidence to put to the test in the market. We would encourage users to check through our test and learn toolkit to help inform their test and learn approaches.”