Direct Mail Statistics

What Marketers Should Know

As we look ahead to 2025, direct mail remains a powerful and essential tool for marketers. Its ability to create personalized, tangible connections continues to drive engagement, build trust, and deliver measurable results. Across industries, businesses are leveraging direct mail to enhance their campaigns and meet evolving consumer expectations.

In this blog, we’ll explore 25 key statistics that demonstrate why direct mail will play a critical role in 2025. From its impressive ROI to its effectiveness in multichannel marketing, these insights will inspire new ways to harness the power of direct mail in the year ahead.

Direct Mail’s Continued Influence

  1. In the financial industry, direct mail is seen as crucial by 88% of companies, with 82% acknowledging its effectiveness in customer outreach. (USPS Delivers)
  2. Direct mail is preferred by 57% of consumers who view it as a secure communication channel for sensitive information. (USPS Delivers)
  3. Direct mail maintains strong results across diverse sectors, with 87% of insurance, 73% of retail, and 68% of healthcare professionals recognizing its effectiveness over other marketing channels for driving engagement and building trust. (USPS Delivers)
  4. The U.S. Postal Service processed around 77.6 billion pieces of mail in 2023, highlighting direct mail’s reach and relevance. (Statista)
  5. Standard letter-sized direct mail saw a 112% ROI in recent studies, outperforming channels like SMS (102%), email (93%), and paid search (88%). (USPS Delivers)
  6. 62% of millennials and Gen Z report actively reading direct mail, showing its relevance among younger demographics. (USPS Delivers)
  7. While the average word count in mail pieces may be up 26%, it’s important to remember consumers are distracted and attention spans are short. (WMW! Blog)

Engagement and Response Rates

  1. Direct mail boasts response rates of 11%-15% in insurance, with certain retail campaigns reporting rates as high as 25%. (USPS Delivers)
  2. Sending follow-up direct mail after initial digital contact can increase response rates by 50%, demonstrating the power of integrated marketing strategies. (USPS Delivers)
  3. The quality of a mailing list is at least 40% of the reason that a campaign succeeds or fails. (USPS Delivers)

Consumer Reactions and Multichannel Connections

  1. QR code and personalized URL engagement quadrupled globally in 2024, underscoring direct mail’s compatibility with digital tactics. (Print ePS)
  2. Augmented reality can elevate response rates from an average of 2-3% up to 35% when included in direct mail campaigns. (Print ePS)
  3. Nearly 74% of marketers agree that direct mail outperforms other channels in response, conversion, and ROI. (Porch Group Media)
  4. With 56% of consumers expressing a likelihood to use promo codes during checkout, a strong call-to-action (CTA) and online response mechanism (such as QR codes) is crucial to drive immediate action in direct mail pieces. (WMW! Blog)
  5. 68% of consumers respond better to personalized direct mail, with 55% expecting brands to tailor content to their interests. (Porch Group Media)
  6. Approximately 44% of direct mail recipients visit a brand’s website after receiving a mail piece, highlighting its effectiveness in bridging offline and online interactions. (USPS Delivers)
  7. Direct mail influences 76% of consumers to make a purchase or consider a product or service, underscoring its persuasive power. (USPS Delivers)

Consumer Preferences and Direct Mail’s Enduring Relevance

  1. 3 in 10 consumers respond to engaging direct mail by researching online, visiting websites, or following brands on social media. (Porch Group Media)
  2. 39% of consumers are likely to scan a QR code on direct mail. (Porch Group Media)
  3. Around 55% of responding consumers in the United States said that, after receiving direct mail, they visited the sender’s website. (Statista)
  4. Approximately 72% of consumers favor receiving fewer, higher-quality direct mail pieces, signaling a trend toward more curated content. (USPS Delivers)
  5. 34% of U.S. marketers now recognize an increased importance in direct mail for reaching consumers. (Statista)
  6. Personalized mail can increase response rates by as much as 135%, demonstrating the value of tailored messaging. (USPS Delivers)
  7. Integrating direct mail with digital tactics like social media and email can drive up to a 49% increase in sales. (Print ePS)
  8. A significant 73% of consumers prefer direct mail for brand communications because they can read it at their convenience, indicating a lasting appreciation for physical mail. (USPS Delivers)

Final Thoughts

With these statistics in mind, direct mail continues to be an essential tool in the 2025 marketing toolkit. Its ability to captivate audiences with personalized, tangible experiences makes it an invaluable tool for fostering brand loyalty, generating leads, and driving action. By leveraging the unique strengths of direct mail, marketers can create campaigns that stand out, resonate, and deliver impact.

Contact us to learn how direct mail can elevate your marketing strategy.

What Makes Data Good Data

We always, always appreciate conversations with customers. Especially those that make us think more thoroughly about our services. We’re constantly open to changing and evolving to provide the best offerings possible for loyal and new customers alike. Recently, we’ve had quite a few conversations about data, and have realized that it’s important for us to provide some insight into our somewhat unique data philosophy, specifically as it relates to direct mail. We’re all about the best data – not always (and not usually) the most data.

Our Direct Mail Data Philosophy

Direct mail may not be the cheapest form of marketing – but it’s often one of the most effective. In fact, 61% of customers find direct mail influential in making purchasing decisions. Compared to email’s average lifespan of 2 seconds, direct mail can last 17 days. We could go on and on about why we love direct mail, which is why we made a complete blog with tons of other eye-popping stats.

While direct mail is very effective – it’s only as effective as the data behind it. We believe it’s important to reach the right people, which is not usually all the people, and this can sometimes be puzzling to our customers. Our philosophy? We’re more worried about and interested in the success of your campaign rather than the number of people we send to. Plus, while we appreciate business income, we more highly value long-lasting business relationships built on trust (which primarily comes from a good track-record). In short – quality over quantity, always.

When we pull our data, you’ll notice that compared to others in the industry, we don’t always end up providing as many contacts. This may look and seem like “less”, but it’s really providing you with “more”. We won’t give you more contacts than necessary, we won’t waste your time with leads that are dead on arrival, we won’t waste your money on mail that ends up in the trash, and we will deliver higher ROI. Many others in the industry will provide you with a bigger list, but one with a portion of people who will trash your direct mail – wasting your time and budget. So, next time you see a long list of “prospects”, don’t let it knock your socks off before diving into who those people really are, what they want, and whether or not they’ll actually respond to you, and, more importantly – become a customer.

Why Our Data is Strong

Strata has years of experience as well as many great connections within the industry. Our data compilation process is rigorous, and one that we’ve worked on for years to define and strengthen. To ensure it’s effective and valuable, we continually evaluate our data sources time and again, never assuming they’re “good as they are”. And similar to how open we are to customer feedback, innovation, and change, we’re always open to changing and improving our data sources so that data we provide, again, will actually return ROI.

Interested in working with Strata to get the most out of good data? Contact us.

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