At Shawmut, we’re always talking about the power of print and direct mail—because we know it works! Today we’re happy to report that direct mail has not only helped us win new business, it enabled us give back through our partnership with Raw Art Works.
Located in Lynn, MA, RAW offers a variety of creative and therapeutic programs for youth at-risk—including a fully operational print shop. We partnered with RAW, because they are helping young people, who may not otherwise have the opportunity, go onto college and pursue careers in marketing and graphic design. Essentially, they’re grooming the future our our industry.
Through our marketing campaign (which focuses on direct mail but also leverages email and social media) we’ve asked our network of marketing professionals and print buyers to help us support RAW. The response has been amazing and we’re proud to announce that we are well on our way to reaching our fundraising goal. Together we’ve raised more than $1500 for RAW and the campaign is going strong!
In addition to the campaign we hosted a tour of Shawmut for RAW students earlier this year. Hopefully they left with a new perspective on opportunities that lie ahead for them in marketing, design, and of course, printing.
Print and direct mail are a key driver of our success and ability to support RAW. But we know that everyone is not a print believer. In fact, if we had a nickle for every time someone said “print is dead” we’d have a lot of nickels.
Source: Andrew M. Davis EVOLVE presentation
Over the past few years we have seen the resurgence of print and direct mail. Here’s a quick recap of some of the data and trends we’ve seen:
- Direct mail achieves a 3.7% response rate with a house list, and a 1.0% response rate with a prospect list. All digital channels combined only achieve a 0.62% response rate
- Print has the ability to stand out among the 700 new blog posts published each minute
- 39% of customers try a business for the first time because of direct mail advertising
- 92% of young shoppers say that they prefer direct mail for making purchasing decisions
- A staggering 70% of Americans say snail mail is more personal than the Internet
We know that print and direct mail can be more costly, but they can also deliver a better bang for your buck. It’s how Shawmut and many of our other clients have been successful in fundraising, reaching new buyers, and educating their target markets.
