Results Reveal That Mail is Driving Commercial Impact With Even Greater Efficiency
The latest results from JICMAIL, the joint industry currency for ad mail, reveal significant improvements to mail effectiveness throughout the customer journey.
JICMAIL’s diary-based data, captured from a panel 1,000 households every month, shows that:
- 8.4% of all ad mail (including direct mail and door drops) and business mail drove traffic to advertiser websites in Q4, while 5% prompted consumers to look up their account details, with both measures growing by nearly 50% year on year.
- 5.7% of all ad and business mail prompted a purchase in Q4 2020, representing 19% growth year on year.
- The frequency of consumer interaction with mail has remained virtually flat year on year for direct mail and business mail, but consumers have displayed improved engagement with door drops with frequency growing 9%. The average door drop is interacted with 3.06 time per month, direct mail 4.40 times and business mail 4.88 times.
- The frequency of interaction with mail is a cornerstone of JICMAIL’s mail campaign impression calculations. Crucially the rate of growth in mail frequency of interaction has been outstripped by the growth in commercial impact in Q4, meaning that mail is driving effectiveness with even greater efficiency than before.
- Mail is also spending longer in the home than a year ago. The average piece of DM is live in the home for 8.1 days before being filed or thrown away, representing growth of 4% year on year. Door drops have been the biggest beneficiary of improved mail longevity, however, with double digit growth of 17% year on year and average lifespans of 6.3 days.
- Door drops containing vouchers and coupons and information about local services were key content drivers of lifespan growth, with the former staying in the home for a week on average, and the latter for nearly nine days.
- As the nation’s vaccination programme continues to pick up pace, direct mail containing appointment related information has seen 40% growth in lifespan year on year, staying in the home for 10 days on average.
Q4 2020 KEY MAIL METRICS
| | Frequency | Item Reach | Lifespan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct Mail | 4.40 | 1.12 | 8.1 days |
| Door Drops | 3.06 | 1.06 | 6.3 days |
| Business Mail | 4.88 | 1.17 | 9.5 days |
Q4 2020 COMMERCIAL MAIL EFFECTS (% OF MAIL ITEMS)
| | General Online Visits for More Information | Visits to Advertiser Websites | Account Detail Look Ups | Purchases |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q4 2019 | 3.6% | 5.7% | 3.4% | 4.8% |
| Q4 2020 | 5.3% | 8.4% | 5.0% | 5.7% |
| YEAR ON YEAR % | +47% | +47% | +47% | +19% |
Mail interactions captured by JICMAIL panellists take many forms and range from opening and reading mail, to passing it on to someone else, putting it in the usual place, putting aside to look at later or taking it out of home (amongst a list of many other actions). In addition, JICMAIL captures the industry category and advertiser details of almost every mail item in its 160,000+ mail item database.
Key sector highlights:
- Grocery, retail, local tradesperson and restaurant / takeaway sector door drops were the biggest contributors to the channel’s improved lifespan metrics in Q4.
- For direct mail, financial services and retail have driven growth in consumer mail engagement.
- The NHS continues to be one of the biggest movers in terms of share of voice (or share of doormat), with its share of direct mail volumes nearly doubling, and its share of business mail up 24%.
Ian Gibbs, director of data leadership and learning at JICMAIL, said: “While JICMAIL has for some years established the case for mail in above-the-line campaigns through the huge numbers of ad impressions that the channel generates, it is encouraging to see how efficiently those impressions are now converting into real commercial outcomes for brands. The accurate measurement of mail effectiveness should be a key concern for all measurement models – from econometrics to attribution models to brand trackers – if the channel is to be credited with effectiveness more accurately.”
Mark Cross, JICMAIL’s engagement director, added: “These results are a timely reminder of how JICMAIL data is an essential source of insight and campaign data for any planner looking to drive business recovery for their clients. They also highlight how through the onset of the JICMAIL levy this data is available to everyone across the market with no data access cost.”
For more information on how you can get hold of JICMAIL data and use it to plan more efficient and effective mail campaigns, please visit www.jicmail.org.uk or email tara@jicmail.org.uk
