For all the noise about digital, direct mail is still the biggest single direct marketing channel, worth around $45bn a year in the US alone. But it’s increasingly clear that printed marketing communications work best when used in conjunction with digital channels, with response and conversion rates improving by three or four percentage points respectively when printed direct mail is combined with email, personalised web pages (PURLs) and mobile elements.
Many printers will understandably look at this and say ‘fine, but we don’t do that digital stuff here, we just do the printing’. But there is an opportunity for those printers who think beyond the print job to what their customers are trying to achieve.