Millennials Love Getting Mail More Than Ever
We all know that millennials, young adults born between 1977 and 1995, are among the most desired target audiences that marketers want to reach. And, as we’ve previously seen, receiving direct mail is popular with millennials more than ever. But, given the current landscape – in the midst of a widespread pandemic, is it still that popular with the younger generation?
Studies say, yes, perhaps even more so than pre-COVID-19. But why?
Excitement Around Checking The Mailbox
Checking the mailbox, especially during the pandemic has become a way for people who are quarantined at home to connect with the world. It has become a common activity and for some, it brings excitement – as people look forward to checking their mailbox daily for mail from their favorite restaurants and services.
Millennials have huge purchasing power, which is perhaps the reason so many marketers and businesses are especially interested in them as consumers, as well as their ability to influence older generations, like the Baby Boomers. In fact, 73% of millennials use direct mail coupons and 63% of millennials that responded to a direct mail piece in the past 3 months, made a purchase. Coupled with the fact that millennials will increase their per capita spending 10% over the next five years, it seems only logical that the road to reaching millennials leads right to their mailbox.
3 Steps To Maximizing Your Direct Mail Impact With Millennials
- Create a Targeted List
- Test, Track, Repeat!
- Multiply Your Touch Points
1. Create A Targeted List
Creating a targeted mailing list seems like it is a no-brainer, however, to have the desired impact with millennials, it needs to be targeted down to behaviors, demographics and life events. By using personalization in your direct mail marketing to millennials, you can help drive customer loyalty and influence purchasing decisions.
In fact, in research done by Oracle, 58% of millennials are more willing to share personal data in exchange for personalized experiences. Another survey showed that 64% off millennials would prefer access to a personalized experiences and services.
2. Test, Track, Repeat!
The importance of testing the effectiveness of your marketing has always been important – if it doesn’t work, why continue to do it? The same is true when testing your direct marketing with millennials. We are well aware that all consumers aren’t created equal and likewise, all millennials aren’t created equal – the dates that compose the millennial generation extend from the 1970s to the mid-1990s – over 20 years. It makes sense, then, that millennials on the older end of the generation might have different values, likes, dislikes and priorities than a younger millennial. This is where testing makes a big difference.
By testing everything – from the size of your direct mail piece to the call-to-action – you can learn a lot in terms of response rates and, if tracked correctly, increase your ROI. Testing and tracking your direct mail effectiveness is an ongoing activity. You should always have some method of being able to evaluate the effectiveness of a direct mail campaign and adapt the strategy for future campaigns.
3. Multiply Your Touch Points
It’s said that if you get your message in front of someone, a millennial perhaps, three times, they will be able to recall who you are. After seven times, they will be able to remember your brand and after twenty-seven times, they will begin to develop trust in your brand. Millennials are no different – this is where personalization comes into play.
Omni-channel marketing programs like Spectrum Mail Plus are great in multiplying the touch points – online, social media and in their mailbox. By utilizing all of the channels available, in coordinated marketing message, increasing those touch points and reaching them where they are, the journey from consumer to customer gets shorter.
It’s important to not be afraid of using other marketing channels in conjunction with direct mail. While direct mail continues to be the most effective method of choice, even in the midst of the pandemic, you can’t count out the other channels that they are seeking and finding information about you and your business. The mystery surrounding reaching millennials isn’t such a mystery when you look at the data.
Millennials love receiving direct mail – in fact 75% of millennials find that the mail they receive every day is valuable and most would prefer direct mail over email when receiving a promotional piece.
The important thing is to keep your message relevant and valuable to that younger generation. Testing, tracking and testing some more is imperative to really identify what the millennial generation is looking for and giving it to them. Finally, using all of your marketing channels available to you to multiply their touch points can accelerate their journey toward making those buying decisions with your business.
