Legislative changes, market uncertainty… the previous 4 years or so have thrown up some interesting changes in the Direct Mail industry but one element that has remained stable is the annual net spend on door drop materials, according to recently published research.
The Direct Marketing Association’s ‘Annual Door Drop industry Report’ uncovered that the annual net spend by businesses in the UK amounted to £263 million in 2017, in comparison with £266 million in 2016 and £260 million in 2013 respectively.
Coupled with data from the AA/Warc expenditure report 2018, the studies showed that door drops were responsible for circa 15% of all direct mail spend last year, a slight decrease from the 15.5% recorded in 2016 however that figure was an increase on the 12.9% in 2015.
Looking at the total annual net spend by UK businesses on Direct Mail in 2017 shows further reasons for positivity, up to £1.75 billion from the £1.71 billion registered in 2016. This came in the midst of several legislative changes as a result of Brexit, GDPR and the snap election.
Annual volumes of Direct Mail in 2017 were recorded at 5.7 billion, showing that the channel is still very much going strong.
Given we are still feeling our way into the post GDPR era, the coming years will be interesting to see how that particular change will affect Direct Mail. There has indeed been an initial noticeable reticence from marketers to utilise direct mail as frequently in their campaigns, but taking into account the ‘fear of the unknown’ factor that is perhaps understandable and expected. Our blog; ‘you won’t need consent for postal marketing’ based on published advice from the ICO shed’s more light on GDPR and Direct Mail and over time, those early fears over consent for postal marketing will surely be alleviated. Coupled with this, due to the fact door drops display no personally identifiable info they are already GDPR compliant.
GDPR has been a long, hard slog for many in terms of readying themselves for compliance, but amidst the concern and confusion the huge opportunity GDPR represents has taken a back seat in many reports and articles. In the first instance, given that door drop campaigns don’t require the same level of personal data that some digital campaigns do, there is an opportunity for UK businesses to utilise the channel effectively for their customer engagement and prospecting campaigns.
It’s also a chance for marketing departments up and down the country to revisit their campaigns and really drill down on the targeting as well as putting real focus and thought behind the message and impact it will have on the target audience. Whilst GDPR raised concerns on the way we will use our marketing data going forward, the blessing in disguise here is that it’s also made us perhaps view things from a different perspective and freshen up our marketing approaches and targeting methodology. With that fresh impetus and clearer guidelines on compliance, Direct Mail and Door Drop Campaigns will no doubt continue to stand alone as the most engaging channels for your target audience. A recently published report found that for every 100 unaddressed door drops received, ten are passed on and shared and each piece is revisited 3 times. With those kinds of response rates, you’d be mad not to use Direct Mail, wouldn’t you?
Thanks for taking the time to read this blog piece on Door Drop Campaigns, if you need any further info or require a demonstration of our hybrid mail software, feel free to contact us on the office number: 0118 474 888.
