Direct mail: the new Super Touchpoint

At a recent DMA conference, we were introduced to the concept of direct mail as one of a number of key ‘Super Touchpoint’ channels in a presentation and new research report from JICMAIL, the body for industry-standard audience measurement data for direct mail, door drops and business mail. You can read the full report here.

We were struck by a number of the report’s key findings – positioning mail’s planning strengths as a platform for attracting consumer attention, deepening customer relationships, and igniting household conversations – and wanted to further explore the impact this might have for client campaigns when combined with our solutions and services.

Direct mail is now measurable


JICMAIL is positioning mail as a channel that can be planned and measured in a similar way to digital: across reach, frequency, time spent and actions taken, thus enabling a shift from “Does it work?” to “How do we optimise it?”

Attention is the key differentiator


The standout stat was that, on average, people spend over 100 seconds engaging with direct mail. This positions mail as a high-attention channel, not just a delivery channel, which makes audience quality and messaging more important.

Performance varies by audience and timing


Results differ depending on who you target, when you reach them, and how relevant the message is. This ties into the importance of segmentation and using data to make campaigns more targeted rather than broad.

Mail supports wider marketing performance

It’s not just about standalone results: mail also drives search, website visits and improves conversion across digital channels. This is useful for positioning it alongside existing digital spend.

Test-and-learn is now expected


There was a strong emphasis on using control groups, matchback and ongoing optimisation, and this is where measurement and data become more important than just the initial campaign.

With direct mail demonstrating its value as a high-attention channel, powered by data and audience insight, and measurable and optimisable like digital, successful campaigns will come from targeting the right audience, making the message relevant, and then optimising based on results.

We’ve seen the strongest direct mail campaign results driven by a number of factors that consistently improve response, conversion and ROI:

The creation of multichannel campaigns

With mail supporting wider marketing performance, integrating direct mail into a multichannel marketing campaign increases acquisition marketing effectiveness. In practice, we have seen how digital builds intent, with direct mail follow ups reinforcing and converting. Using our direct mail dataset of 50 million+ records and 900+ variables, we help brands to meet their specific campaign objectives and reach the right households at the right moment; improving response, conversion and overall campaign efficiency.

In three recent campaigns executed for brands in the retail, automotive and other sectors, we combined digital and direct mail and saw an uplift in the response rates by 58% when using the two channels alongside each other.

Improved data quality

Outdated, incomplete or poorly matched data means budget is often spent reaching people who are unlikely or unable to respond. By improving clients’ data quality and audience segmentation, we’ve seen campaigns deliver up to 800% improvement in ROI and around 3 x return on investment.

Improved targeting

Direct mail is strongest when built on advanced targeting – especially behavioural insight, household-level data and propensity indicators – allowing messaging to reflect customer context, not just identity.

Measurement and modelling

Once targeting and personalisation are in place, the next challenge is to understand what’s actually driving direct mail performance through the application of robust suppression and audience selection, and using incrementality-led measurement to isolate true impact.

Once the drivers of direct mail performance are understood, the next step is to improve it. AI-driven propensity modelling predicts customer behaviour by combining customer behaviour, transaction data and statistical techniques with over 900 consumer variables, allowing audiences to be prioritised based on likelihood to convert, rather than relying on broad segmentation.

When applied together, these factors improve how direct mail performs as a channel – making it more predictable, scalable and cost-efficient – and a true Super Touchpoint indeed.

We’re already seeing this in action, with brands achieving up to 58% uplift in response and significant gains in ROI through better data and targeting.

If you’re looking to unlock similar results, discover more about how to unlock similar performance.