2015 Direct Marketing Association Response Rate Report

The Direct Marketing Association recently made available their 2015 Response Rate Report. The report shows direct mail continuing to outperform ALL digital marketing channels. Here is a recap of the report:

Direct mail achieved a 3.7% response rate from use of “house” lists and a 1% response from “prospect” or “cold” lists. All digital channels combined, including email, mobile, social and paid searches, achieved a .62% response rate.

Cost per acquisition for direct mail remained competitive at $19 per customer/order. This compared favorably with social media ($16-$18), paid search ($21-$30), and even email ($11-$15).

Formats continue to play a role in influencing response rates. Oversized envelopes had the best response rates at 5%, followed by postcards at 4.25% and letter envelopes at 3.5%.

Marketers embraced multi-channel marketing, with 44% claiming to use three or more channels in their marketing efforts. The most popular channels were email, direct mail and social media.

Direct mail produced the same ROI as social media (15%-17%).

Direct mail remains a strong and successful marketing channel in terms of response rates and cost per acquisition. It may be more expensive on a “per piece” basis than digital, but it packs a punch that cannot be replicated with digital channels.