Last year was not a good year for direct mail in the US, as volumes and spend plummeted. But SMBs in the US and Canada haven’t abandoned printed marketing materials, with 58% of marketers surveyed at SMBs planning to increase their use of printed marketing materials, and 43% expecting to expand their use of direct mail. That’s according to a recent report from Ascend2 and Allegra.

The results are based on an August 2023 survey of 441 marketing and sales decision-makers at small and mid-sized businesses (5-200 employees) in the US (80% share) and Canada (20%). These respondents reported having used a variety of printed materials during the previous 12 months as part of their marketing/lead generation programs, including brochures/flyers (70%), direct mail (other than postcards; 45%), promotional signage (44%), postcards (36%) and newsletters (35%).

With respect to direct mail, specifically, respondents are most likely to believe that the channel can help them increase brand awareness, with almost two-thirds (65%) reporting this as a goal that direct mail can assist with. Moreover, 87% believe that direct mail is effective at generating brand awareness for their business, and 84% say that it can improve their company’s brand and image.

Not far behind, close to 6 in 10 (57% of) respondents say that direct mail can help them generate leads and sales, and 85% believe it to be effective for this purpose. Previous research has found marketers saying they're more likely to use direct mail for lead generation and remarketing than for brand awareness. 

There are challenges to the use of direct mail, though. The most commonly cited one is the high list, printing and mail production costs, by 45% of respondents. This mirrors challenges with the use of printed marketing materials overall, as separate results likewise find high printing and production costs to be the leading challenge with printed materials more broadly.

Beyond high costs, other challenges faced by respondents when using direct mail as part of their marketing strategy include difficulty in tracking and measuring ROI (34%), difficulty in targeting specific audience segments (34%) and distribution logistics and costs (32%).