Direct mail reaches audiences from teenagers to Baby Boomers alike.  With the growing amount of digital technology vying for each person’s attention, print is a break from the communication overload.

When you look at direct mail broken down by age, you’ll see that direct mail reaches a broad age-range and gets responses from a large percentage of people in each age bracket.

Direct mail recipients between the ages of 15 and 19 have an average of a 32% response rate and over 80% take the time to read the branded message addressed to them.

Direct mail recipients between the ages of 16 and 24 have an average of a 23% response rate — jumping to a 43% average response rate for people between the ages of 25 and 34 years of age.

1.5 million people between the age of 35 and 44 have visited a store or tried a new product because of a direct mail piece they received.  Additionally, 46% of people in this age-range reported that they had responded to a direct mail piece.

People between the ages of 45 and 54 are 25% more likely than any other age group to open a relevant direct mailer and 47% reported they had responded to a direct mail message in the past.

At any age, direct mail not only breaks through the clutter, but it also engages your audience and entices them to response to the call-to-action in some form — whether they visit a website or store or respond directly to the mailer — direct mail demands attention and gets results.

(Source:  Absolute Creative Marketing; Direct Mail Statistics 2013)

Timothy Freeman
President
Print & Graphic Communications Association