New Year Direct Mail Marketing Trends

With the covid pandemic in 2021, the world of Direct Mail marketing has experienced some changes. Most companies adapted to these twists and turns and aligned their customer marketing with other future trends during this period.

In recent, direct mail volume in the U.S has recovered near pre-pandemic levels. This has led the major players in the mailing industry to discover and rediscover ways of incorporating direct mail into their marking strategy.

The Wall Street Journal has also cited in their report that one of the top mistakes retailers and distributors made was cutting back on traditionally proven traffic drivers as they slowly moved toward online and social media consumer engagement.

While you draft and incorporate direct mail in your marketing strategy, here are some trends for 2022 to look out for.

Postal Service Changes

Throughout the pandemic, packaged delivery maintained an elevated position. This reflects consumer habits during the lockdown, which also saw a decline in First-class mail volume and revenues.

The USPS, in march 2021, revealed its 10-year makeover. Its unveiled goal is to enhance financial stability after heavy losses of past years while continually delivering more parcels.

Some of the changes it proposes include;

• Increasing the number of their postal delivery vehicles.
• Employing the use of more trucks for mail movement across the country.
• Investing in package sorting machines to meet increased demand.
• Closing postal branches to streamline retail services.
• Delivery time increase on First-class Mail from 3 days to 5 days.

Among these changes, the increase in postage rate and reduction in timeline for certain mails encourages marketers to take an economical approach in their campaigns. For example, cutting down the size of the mail to save cost.

Postal Tech Promotions

The USPS, over the years, engaged in giving mailers discounts for mail campaign that features new and upcoming technologies in areas of marketing and printing. The idea behind this is to encourage marketers and printers to come up with unique mailing campaigns that increase ROI and drive traffic with customer engagement.

For marketers, this should be a signal to try out new and developing tech that increases the value of your mail in this digital age.

Personalization in your direct mail

Personalization has been a relevant way of retaining customers. In 2022, the need for personalization would be even more relevant with Variable Data Printing (VDP), allowing for more customer data usage. Marketers must focus on their best-performing segments to make their campaigns pertinent to customers.

Strapping up for 2022

The economic turmoil of 2021 isn’t the only thing that resulted from the Covid pandemic. We also saw a steady increase in e-commerce, remote working, and virtual conferences. Direct mail helps you combine the advantages of these digital channels with other technologies to extend your audience reach and increase their response rate. 

If these methods seem overwhelming, you can always employ the services of postal experts. 

Kirkwood Direct is an expert direct mail company that can help you with your next campaign. At Kirkwood Direct, our experts are experienced in the art of crafting cost-effective direct mail campaigns capable of enticing consumers and reaching that marketing goal you set for 2022. Give us a call today or fill out our online contact form.