A recent 2012 consumer survey done by Epsilon reveals that Direct Mail is still the preferred and trusted method for Americans and Canadians to receive brand communications in nearly every product category, including financial services, insurance, general health, cleaning products, food and charitable causes. The in-depth survey was actually part of a study to determine Channel Preference for Both the Mobile and Non-Mobile Consumer. The study revealed that while mobile and digital communications is making an impact on direct to consumer marketing, U.S. and Canadian consumers still had a stronger affinity with direct mail.
Some key findings:
- 42% of U.S. consumers and 39% of Canadian consumers said direct mail is the preferred channel to receive sensitive health information;
- 36% of U.S. consumers and 35% of Canadian consumers said direct mail is the preference channel to receive insurance information. 39% and 38%, respectively said the same for Financial services information, and 26% and 20% respectively said the same for Retail information;
- 73% of Americans and 62% of Canadians said they receive a lot of emails that they simply do not open;
- 70% of Americans and 69% of Canadians said they have received more emails in the past year than the year before;
- 62% of Americans and 63% of Canadians said they enjoy checking the mailbox for postal mail;
- 51% of U.S. consumers and 49% of Canadian consumers said they pay more attention to postal mail than email;
- 73% of U.S. consumers and 67% of Canadian consumers said they prefer direct mail for brand communications because they can read the information at their convenience.
