Nearly eight out of ten mailshots – including direct mail, door-drops and business mail – were read or looked at in the crucial Q4 trading period, an all-time-high since the official tracking of consumer mail behaviours began eight years ago.
That is according to the latest figures from Jicmail for Q4 in the run-up to Christmas, which saw increased mail activity in the grocery and travel markets across all mail types, and across utilities, medical, finance and telecoms in the door drops sector.
This is a time of year when it is traditionally harder than ever for advertisers to achieve cut through.
With mail read-rates hitting a 77% peak in Q4 2024, and year-on-year growth in frequency of interaction seen across direct mail, door drops and business mail, Jicmail can report that the average mail piece is interacted with for 2 minutes and 13 seconds across a 28 day period, while the average door drop generates 56 seconds of attention.
The mail channel’s ability to attract consumer attention and subsequently convert this attention into sales acquisitions is a vital component of what Jicmail is branding its “super touchpoint” strengths, as outlined in the “Mail: The Super Touchpoint” report released at the Jicmail Conference at PwC in January.
Some 6% of mail prompted a purchase in the critical Q4 trading period, half of these purchases were transacted online. Supermarkets, retailers, charities and financial service products such as credit cards and pensions, recorded above-average response rates across both door drops and direct mail.
Loyalty reward statements proved to be one of the most effective drivers of response in the direct mail space, while for door drops, the use of vouchers and special offers was found to be particularly effective.
Business mail frequency of interaction and lifespan in the home grew year-on-year for the third quarter in a row; while attention levels hit an all-time-high reading of 191 seconds per mail item.
According to Jicmail-endorsed Nielsen circulation data, 7,763 advertisers used direct mail or door drops in 2024, amounting to 15% of all UK advertisers tracked by Nielsen.
The traditional big mail advertisers across the grocery and retail sectors (Tesco, Waitrose, Farmfoods and Hillarys) dominated spend alongside Christmas charity appeals (from Crisis and The Salvation Army).
However, notable new entrants into the top ten rankings included Our Future Health, proving that the use of mail in a sensitive market such as the medical sector is vital where trust levels in the medium and message are of paramount importance, the report claims.
Jicmail director of data leadership and learning Ian Gibbs said: “Everyone knows that the competition for consumer eyeballs is fiercer than ever in Q4. Combined with the ongoing challenges of platform dominated ad spend, persistent use of last-click attribution models, and rising levels of digital ad fraud, it is more important than ever for marketers to consider their investments in this crucial trading period.
“Mail has again proven its strengths throughout the purchase cycle in Q4 and the record levels of mail read-rates show just how much appetite consumers have for marketing comms delivered through the mail channel.”
Jicmail engagement director Mark Cross added: “The question to ask for non-users is what reward did you sacrifice by not using mail when your competitive users converted 133 seconds of attention from direct mail into response rates just not achievable in digital.”
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