The figures showed that 6.5% of mail prompted a purchase in Q4 2023, up from 4.8% in Q4 2022. JICMail said these purchases reflected the shift in online shopping behaviours to e-commerce, with 3.3% of mail driving an online purchase.
8.4% of mail prompted a website visit in Q4, 4.8% an account look-up, and 3.3% an online purchase. This purchase rate reflected a 40% conversion rate from site visit to purchase.
Additional digital actions now tracked by JICMail found that mail prompted online searches (2.6% of mail), emails to advertisers (1.1%), and app download and usage (1%).
Additionally, 2.3% of mail prompted an in-store purchase in Q4.
In the second half of 2023, just under a quarter of direct mail was used for cold acquisition purposes. By comparison, 88% of door drops reached new prospects as opposed to existing customers.
Mail attention has stabilised on a quarterly basis, although still recorded growth year-on-year. The average piece of business mail was interacted with for well over two and a half minutes across a 28-day period in Q4, compared to one minute for the average door drop. However, door drops are the most attention efficient mail channel, JICMail added.
Tesco, NHS, and FarmFoods continued to command “a disproportionately large share of attention” compared to their share of mail volumes. They were joined in Q4 by Cotton Traders, which accounted for 7% of direct mail volumes yet 10% of time spent with mail (out of the top ten mail advertisers).
The average piece of business mail was interacted with 4.7 times over a 28-day period, direct mail 4.4 times, Partially Addressed Mail (PAM) 4.1 times, and door drops 3.1 times.
The average lifespan in the home was 8.3 days for business mail, 7.1 days for direct mail, 6.1 days for PAM, and 5.8 days for door drops.
The average piece of direct mail was looked at for 124 seconds across 28 days, door drops 62 seconds, business mail 168 seconds, and PAM for 78 seconds.
Ian Gibbs, JICMail director of data leadership and learning, said: “The challenges faced by the British high street in Q4 have been well documented of late.
“For those advertisers who invested budget in mail however, the channel did its bit – driving both in store and online purchases at a time when it’s getting harder and harder to stimulate immediate response from performance marketing activity.
“A 40% conversion rate from site visit to purchase is the type of performance that should catch the attention of digital growth marketers.”
JICMail data is gathered from a panel of 1,000 households every month. The mail activity of every household member is tracked using a diary-based app. Every mail item they receive over the course of a week is captured and everything they do with that mail item over the course of a month is recorded.
A webinar supporting the release of the Q4 2023 data will take place on 5 March, and registration is open here.
