Door Drop campaigns & Direct Mail: Why Print is Making a Comeback
- ianbamford
- Nov 20
- 4 min read
For a long time now, we’ve been told print was finished. Digital is the only thing that matters to Millennials, Gen Zs, everybody. And as a result, every piece of communication, every promotion, every message has been squeeeeeezed into inboxes or social feeds already packed with noise.
But increasingly, there’s lots of data telling quite a different story. One that’s putting direct mail and door drops firmly back in the marketing mix, with savvy brands seeing the benefits.
And the data makes sense. Because when you look properly at how people actually behave, print delivers something digital simply can’t compete with. Attention.
Digital overload is real, and people are switching off
68% of people say their inbox feels like “white noise” and almost two-thirds of us are more likely to open something that arrives through our letterbox (Royal Mail MarketReach, The Value of Mail). And that’s no surprise, because most people feel overwhelmed by the constant stream of emails, ads, notifications, and social content.
When your email’s just one of something like 120 sitting in someone’s inbox, the chances of being ignored are high. A well-timed door drop or piece of direct mail, though? That feels different. And it lands different as well.
Mail gets opened, read, and remembered
The numbers speak for themselves. Direct mail has some of the strongest engagement rates of any channel:
5 – 9% response rate. (DMA Response Rate Report) How about that compared to your email response rate. Maybe around 1% or less?
A whopping 161% return on investment when sending to your own data list (Association of National Advertisers Response Rate Report). Now that beats paid search and display doesn’t it.
71% of people trust mail more than digital messages.
(Royal Mail MarketReach, The Power of Print)
Physical mail triggers stronger emotional responses and better long-term memory recall than digital ads (MIT, Neuromarketing & Mail).
In short, being tactile wins. There’s far less of that competing noise you get in a digital environment, meaning direct mail or door drops are read with far less mental effort, and they stick in the memory more easily. Humans don’t like anything that adds friction to a process, so if you can make things as easy as possible, people not only notice your message, they actually remember it better.
Print drives digital behaviour too
Whilst the stats show direct mail & door drops outperform digital, it isn’t about choosing one over the other. It’s about establishing the right channel mix for your activity. And that’s something a lot of businesses miss. Printed mail doesn’t replace your digital activity, it amplifies it. And you know what that means, increased ROI!
In their Q1 2024 Results Report, JICMAIL found that mail-driven purchases grew by 43%, and nearly half of those purchases happened online. That’s exactly why QR codes, personalised URLs and unique landing pages work so well and so powerfully with print. It really comes into its own driving a seamless offline to online customer experience.
It’s not old-school. It’s cross-channel marketing that actually works. When someone scans because they’re physically holding your message in their hand, their intent is already there. They’re already moving along their customer journey.
Attention matters. And mail gets more of it
One of the most eye-opening stats from JICMAIL is this:
The average piece of mail receives around two minutes of attention, compared to around just 1 – 2 seconds for digital display or social ads as people scroll or swipe past.
Just think about that. That’s not a small difference, that’s huge. Next level performance.
And it explains why brands using direct mail & door drop marketing see higher recall, higher engagement and higher conversion rates, even when budgets are tighter. People simply spend more time with it and more time paying attention to your message.
Time to rethink Door Drop campaigns
With digital marketing costs rising, ad blockers and spam filters doing their thing, and performance harder to deliver, marketers are once again looking for alternative ways to effectively connect with and engage people, not just deliver an ad to a screen. Which brings us back round to the benefits of Direct mail and door drops campaigns:
Guaranteed reach (every household receives it)
A physical presence people can’t scroll past
Higher trust and more emotional impact
A proven boost to digital traffic and conversions
Longer lifespan. Mail stays in homes for an average of 8.6 days (JICMAIL)
In a world where customers are harder to reach and even harder to keep engaged, that extra attention is worth its weight in gold.
What you should takeaway
We said at the start print marketing is making a comeback. Truth is it never went away. What is changing is how marketers are once again embracing the impressive way audiences respond to it. When inboxes are overloaded and digital ads disappear into the background swamped by constant noise, a well-designed, well-timed piece of print cuts through like nothing else.
If you want to stand out, build trust, and drive action online or offline, adding Door Drops & Direct Mail to your marketing plan could be the smartest move you make.
