Mailshots cement position in multi-channel marketing

Physical mail continues to drive multi-channel marketing strategies by further expanding its effectiveness at driving online traffic, product and service information gathering online, and record levels of smartphone and tablet usage.

That is according to the latest report from Jicmail, the joint industry currency for mail based on data captured from a panel 1,000 households every month.

The Q4 2021 report reveals that while 9% of mail (across direct Mail, door drops and business mail combined) prompted a website visit, mail also continued to record robust effects for traditional bricks and mortar retailers.

With the nation managing to avoid another lockdown over Christmas, the proportion of mail driving consumers in store doubled in comparison to Q4 2020.

Volumes on the Jicmail panel also increased, up 16% year on year, with door drops again the stand-out growth channel recording a 30% increase year on year. Volumes are now in excess of pre-pandemic levels with 11,984 items tracked in Q4 2021 compared to 11,489 in Q1 2020.

Of the 17 industry sectors measured, it is the retail sector that has proven to be most effective at taking advantage of mail’s digital and physical effects in the key Christmas trading season.

Retail is the only sector alongside automotive that records above average mail effectiveness at driving web visits (11% of retail mail) and store footfall (3% of retail mail). In comparison, while supermarket advertisers are very effective at driving customers in store, their mail is still performing below average at driving people online.

The direct mail and business mail channels have both recorded uplifts in frequency of interaction in Q4 2021. Most notably this uplift has been driven by younger audiences for direct mail, with 25 to 34, 35 to 44 and 45 to 54 year olds all interacting with mail more than they were a year ago.

Mail interactions captured by 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 215,000+ mail item database.

With mail volumes recovering, and mail effectiveness increasing, Jicmail insists it has seen more demand than ever to access its mail planning and measurement data. In an effort to service the needs of the thousands of small and medium businesses who use mail but are not yet Jicmail accredited, the organisation has launched of Jicmail Essentials.

The scheme is a free to access platform and contains a wealth of mail campaign planning data detailing mail campaign reach, frequency and lifespan alongside effectiveness predictions according to different commercial objectives. Cross-media audience cost calculations; top performing mail creative downloads; and A/B testing toolkits by industry sector have all been made available through Essentials to bring the power of robust mail planning data to advertisers large and small.

Jicmail engagement director Mark Cross said: “Jicmail Essentials is now available for everyone to access, providing an easy first step within their time pressured routines to use this key data for their campaigns. We are delighted that enabled by the Jicmail Levy, the tool is available at no cost for everyone to embed within their own resources.

“In particular, it is designed to support the many small and medium businesses who ordinarily do not access our data, but it is also there as a first step for all planners, who may wish their organisations to explore the data in more depth as subscribers, which again, comes at no additional cost.”

Jicmail director of data leadership and learning Ian Gibbs added: “We’ve witnessed another high performing quarter for mail and it’s encouraging to see volumes on the Jicmail panel finally return to their pre-pandemic levels.

“Jicmail continues to be a great source of information to help bust some long-held myths around the mail channel. It’s been exciting to see the prevailing wisdom that only digital channels can be used to reach young people effectively challenged by the uptick in mail engagement noted among 25 to 34 year olds over the 2021 festive period.”