Mail inserts reach both young and old consumers

Research by Lloyd James has revealed that inserts in mail reach younger buyers as well as older consumers.

The survey of 2,000 UK adults found that, overall, 18 per cent of all UK consumers said they had responded to a special offer enclosed in one of their regular statements in the last 12 months.

Targeted inserts were almost equally successful among both genders, with 19 per cent of men and 17 per cent of women saying that an insert had compelled them to respond.

The survey sample was representative of the UK by age, gender, region and social class.

The research showed that consumers under 45 are keen to take action on offers received though inserts, indicating that multichannel marketing programmes using digital and other media work well when they include mailed inserts.

The research found that roughly 30 per cent of consumers under 45 had responded to an insert in the past year.

The study also revealed that the people who are most likely to respond to inserts live in the north east, central Scotland, Yorkshire, London and the Midlands, while consumers in Wales, the south west and the east of England responded to inserts less frequently.

Lloyd James said its survey is particularly significant in light of recent findings about the success of traditional direct marketing in driving people to commercial websites.

A recent study by Pitney Bowes found that 60 per cent of consumers were most likely to visit a company website with a first-time purchase in mind if a piece of direct mail, an insert, or direct response advertisement pointed them to it.

The impact of offline communications outweighed that of digital media, as only 24 per cent of consumers stated that an e-mail, sponsored weblink or other type of online advert would get them to go to a company website.

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