Within our comprehensive database of direct mail, the Who's Mailing What Archive, we crunch the various numbers in order to find the current trends in the mailstream. Here's what we've seen so far in 2011.
1. More Controls in 2010-11 Compared to 2009
A control is a piece of mail that we've seen before in the Archive, and usually it's an indication of mail that works for certain company. Of course, it can also mean that a company is not spending the money on testing.
So far in 2011 (data is calculated until the end of June), 25 percent of all efforts are controls, which keeps pace with 2010, but represents a 25 percent increase from 2009.
2. Surge in Premiums — 1 in Every 5 Mail Pieces
What about premiums, those gifts that are promised to prospects once they buy or donate? Still a great tool to turn the prospect into a customer, mailers use them more than ever for prospects who seem to appreciate it more than ever.
In 2011, 19 percent of all efforts include a premium, so one out of every five mail pieces. That's the highest percentage we've seen in the last five years, and it represents a 7 percent increase from 2010.
3. Major Uptick in VDP & Personalization
With more competition for the prospect's time, it only makes sense to leverage the data, right? No doubt, we're seeing a major increase in VDP and personalization on mail pieces in 2011.
By far, this year represents the highest percentage of personalized mail than ever before, with 38 percent of all mail. That's 13 percent more than 2010 and 36 percent more than 2009, 2008 and 2007!
4. Surprising Increase in Larger Formats
Comparing the last 12 months to the previous 12 months, with direct mail budgets generally being downsized a bit, you'd expect to see a literal downsizing of the mail as well ... but that's not what happened.
For envelopes smaller than the #10, the percentage stayed the same in both 12-month periods — 2.7 percent.
The surprising difference came in the larger formats, with so-called medium-sized mail (that includes #10s and 6" x 9"s), actually going slightly down, from 74 percent of all mail to 72 percent of all mail in the last 24 months.
Meanwhile, the percentage of mail that was larger sized (bigger than 6" x 9"s) actually went up by 9 percent!! Now larger formats are being used a full quarter of all mail — 25.5 percent to be exact. How long this trend can hold remains to be seen.
According to David Mastervich, Manager of Catalogs, Periodicals & Saturation Mail for the USPS, this trend doesn't come as a shocker. "It's probably due to the launch of our EDDM [Every Door Direct Mail] product which is a flat product only on city routes, The product is a hit."
5. Self-Mailers Continue to Slide
To keep things fresh for the prospect, and perhaps shift away from the envelope/letter package, you'd guess that many companies are using more self-mailers in 2011, right?
Well, that's actually not the case. In turns out, the highest percentage of self-mailer usage in the last 10 years was 2007, with a whopping 55 percent of mail being a self-mailer format. It's gone down every year since then, and now sits at 45 percent of mail. In other words, a 17 percent drop.
6. Big Drop in B-to-B Mail
What about those spiffy B-to-B mail pieces? Of all the mail pieces that we examine here, I admit to enjoying the three-dimensional B-to-B campaigns the most. Are there more of those circulating today, going after new business?
Well, in the 2010, the answer was a resounding yes. 15 percent of all mail was business-to-business mail, the highest percentage in the last decade.
But so far in 2011 it dropped by 33 percent, down to only 10 percent of mail.
7. QR Codes Swarm the Mailstream!
The still hot topic in direct mail ... QR codes. With the USPS sweetening the deal for July and August [editor's note: previous version of article stated incorrectly that the USPS QR Code promotion ended in June], you'd expect to see a major increase of QR codes on mailers in the late summer — and that's precisely what happened.
So while only 2.2 percent of mail had a QR code in June, it changed dramatically in July, when usage picked up dramatically, with over 11 percent of mail featuring a QR code. That's a 400 percent increase!!
Ethan Boldt is the chief content officer of DirectMarketingIQ. These trends were developed from the Who's Mailing What! Archive, the world's most complete library of direct mail. Click here to find out more. Ethan can be reached at eboldt@napco.com.
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