Direct mail continues to bea strong channel for marketers with plenty of associated spending. But after a couple of years of growth, direct mail volumes tanked last year, as did marketers’ investment in the channel, according to a Winterberry Group report.

In fact, direct mail volumes dropped by 13.4% last year to under 63 (62.94) billion, with the year-over-year decline of almost 10 billion pieces marking “the largest pullback since the 2009 recession,” per the analysis.

The decline comes after consecutive year-over-year increases in direct mail volume, of 0.7% in 2022 and 3.6% in 2021. Those came after another precipitous drop in direct mail volume between 2019 and 2020.

As a result, last year’s direct mail volume was almost 23% smaller than that of 2019 (81.41 billion).

Coupled with the decline in direct mail volume last year was – unsurprisingly – a drop in spending. Winterberry Group estimates that US marketers spent $37.6 billion on direct mail last year, which would represent a 9.8% decrease from 2022. That’s the largest relative drop of any online or offline media measured in the report. And while a rebound is forecast this year, it’s only minor, with a predicted 1.5% rise in spending to $38.2 billion.

Due to these trends, direct mail has fallen behind marketers’ experiential/sponsorship spending.

Separately, the report tracks US spending on data, data services and data infrastructure. According to the analysis, total US spending on data, data services, and data infrastructure grew by 7.3% y-o-y to reach $31.7 billion. Looking ahead, Winterberry Group expects that US spending on data, identity data services and platforms will grow by 13.9% this year to $36.1 billion.