The latest figures from JICMail, Royal Mail and The DMA show that direct mail is experiencing something of a resurgence. Volumes are at their highest level for years with increasing number of brands adding it into their marketing mix, it is now the most authoritative advertising channel with consumer trust higher for direct mail than any other media and with incentives from Royal Mail being extended until September it is also incredibly cost effective.
And if what is in the regulatory pipeline both in the UK and EU it seems that this renaissance won’t be short lived. If anything, direct mail will become even more influential.
Recent updates from the DMA in its Responsible Marketing Update webinar reveal several reasons why your customer mailing data will become even more valuable.
The government’s consultation on the UK’s data strategy called Data: A New Direction sees a number of reforms to current UK data protection laws in order to reduce barriers to innovation. The first is that there will be much higher fines for rogue callers and increased consumers advice about how to deal with unwanted cold calls meaning that for many brands it ultimately removes genuine outbound calling from the mix in case it damages the brand. Legitimate interest still remains despite lobbying from the DMA this means that there remains uncertainty around who and why brands can contact under the ‘legitimate interest’ clause.
Moreover across the Channel in the EU there are a number of regulatory Acts in progress, namely Data Act, Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act. Given that we are no longer in the EU these acts don’t necessarily directly impact us, but due to adequacy and the impact of these new regulations on GDPR they are of interest. Ultimately, what these acts mean is that the EU is looking to create new data ecosystems which encourage collaboration and reduce online monopolies and give consumers even greater controls over their online data. This combined with the extinction of third party cookies and the now stratospheric rate of ad fraud means there is going to be a major shake up which will impact online advertising. Digital experts are encouraging brands to take money out of their digital display budget and put it towards experimentation on new technologies such as NFTs or blockchain digital wallets or to rewind the clock and return to contextualised online marketing.
Yet, it is likely that some brands, in these challenging market conditions, will not want to test new digital methods, but instead use their budget on channels that are proven to deliver results and increased ROI, such as DM. The key here, however, will be to ensure that mail remains relevant and targeted, otherwise we will very quickly see a reverse in consumer acceptance of the mail. To do this it is critical that campaign data is as clean and up-to-date as possible. We have award winning solutions that make this process quick, easy and cost efficient whether your data is hosted in the cloud, on your server or even in Microsoft Dynamics 365.
For more information on the impending changes to data protection please get in touch or catch up on the DMA webinar here: https://dma.org.uk/webinar/responsible-marketing-update-cookie-less-future-ai-and-adtech-developments. And for support on ensuring your mailing data is fit for purpose get in touch!
