Everywhere you look in public these days—on the street, in coffee shops, even at the stoplight—it seems that people have their eyes on their phones. Nowhere does this seem to be more true than for 19- to 34-year-olds—the millennials. The prevailing thought in marketing circles is that this phone fixation has rendered direct mail ineffective, unwanted, and untrusted by this group. Fact is, nothing could be further from the truth.
They are not (entirely) smartphone-dependent.
They may gazing at their phones a large percentage of the time but, marketing-wise, this does not appear to translate into action, as 50% of millennials said that they ignore digital advertising and have a greater trust in printed advertising. Supporting this preference for print is the fact that millennials make up a significant percentage (20 to 31%) of newspaper and magazine readers.
They like to receive direct mail.
Millennials overwhelmingly like the mail. A report by the U.S. Postal Service (where all of the stats for this story came from) found that 97% of millennials said they like to receive mail. They are more likely than non-millennials to sort and scan their mail, more likely to read it and show it to others, and less likely to thrown mail away.
They trust it.
Based on the previous paragraph, this might be completely obvious but we mention it because it’s not merely that millennials trust direct mail; it’s that they trust information they receive in their mailbox far more than they trust digital media…or any other kind of traditional media. Statistically speaking, a full 90% deem direct mail a reliable source of information and deals.
They respond to it.
It would follow then that millennials also trust direct mail and…that is exactly what the U.S. Postal Service’s study (called “A Look at How Millennials Respond to Direct Mail,” if you want to Google it) found. Despite a general non-existence of direct mail campaigns targeted at millennials, just a few short years ago, more than 28 million of them made a purchase from a printed catalog—y’know…the kind that you get in the mail.
It works.
In short, despite what some people are saying—everything from “direct mail is dead” to “millennials don’t care about it,” direct mail works on millennials. A giant 84% of them check their mailboxes on a routine basic and 64% of them prefer to direct mail to email for finding useful information.
We hope “everybody knows” that they can log on to www.prospectsplus.com/pei to produce professional-looking postcards (using your own design or our customizable templates) and fully targeted mailing lists. Then mail them out…all with a few mouse clicks.
We know how busy small business owners are (no generalization there), so you might prefer to call Opportunity Knocks at 1 (866) 319-7109 and tell our design and marketing pros what you need. They create great-looking, high-response postcards all day long and help with list-building and mailing services too.