You Can’t Change Minds With A Medium That Has An Average Lifespan Of Two Seconds

If you want to influence and persuade prospects, you’re going to need more than two seconds.

And a recent study indicates that the average lifespan of an email is now just two seconds.

I receive hundreds of marketing emails on a daily basis. If I open even 20% of those that make it to my inbox, that’s a high rate. The rest get discarded without getting opened. Many are simply diverted to my spam folder and never get seen.

This is why I’m touting the value of direct mail as it is enjoying a welcome resurgence by clients around the world who have become disenchanted with the results of email marketing.

Believe it or not, most of us humans still enjoy holding something tangible in our hands.

We still spend more time reading the cereal box in the morning than we do with our emails. In more recent data from the USPS, they have found that consumers actually spend time “interacting with direct mail.” The data shows that, “nearly all consumers (98%) bring in their mail the day it’s delivered. Of these, 72% bring it in as soon as possible, and 77% sort through their mail immediately.”

In the same report it was shown that, “Consumers spend an average of 30 minutes reading their mail on any given occasion. They spend 45 minutes with magazines, 30 minutes with catalogs and 25 minutes with direct mail. Two seconds versus 25 minutes—enough said.

Consumers also have positive opinions about mail. More than half of consumers (56%) say receiving mail is a “real pleasure,” 55% “look forward” to discovering the mail they receive, and 67% feel mail is more personal than the internet.”

And, if you’re targeting the elusive millennial market, you’ll like the following:

Millennials are:

• 71% MORE likely to scan the mail compared to 66% of non-millennials
• 54% LESS likely to discard mail without reading it compared to 59% of non-millennials
• 45% MORE likely to organize and sort the mail compared to 40% of non-millennials
• 36% MORE likely to take time to read the mail compared to 35% of non-millennials
• 24% MORE likely to show mail to others compared to 19% of non-millennials

Why not kick off the New Year with a well thought out direct mail campaign? We’re here to help!