As retailers head into the holiday sales season and balance their offline-online marketing mix, there’s solid recent evidence to support direct mail investment, even by digital-first marketers. It’s why AccuList USA continues updating mailing list research to hone response for a wide variety of multichannel retail campaigns in popular seasonal categories like gourmet and food gifts, health/beauty, hobbies/collectibles, and pets.

Holiday Shopping Survey Shows Direct Mail Power

Among the findings of global marketing firm Epsilon’s just released 2016 holiday shopping survey is shoppers’ clear propensity to respond to mail, for example. In fact, 77% of respondents said they feel advertisements received by mail will have at least “some influence” on their buying decisions this holiday shopping season. Compare that number to the just 41% of respondents who said that banner advertisements when searching online will have at least “some influence” on buying decisions. According to the survey respondents, they are influenced by direct mail because it usually contains an offer or discount and the format allows for leisurely review time. No surprises there.

Even Digital-First Marketers Embrace Mail

If any digital-first marketers are unconvinced, they should take a look at some real-life mail examples from digital market leaders, cited in a recent article for Target Marketing magazine by Paul Bobnak, director of Who’s Mailing What!. Bobnak shares five mail examples that are helping digital-first marketers stand out from their online competition: a Zulily postcard for the women/family-oriented shopping site, an informative Angie’s List magazine to build loyalty for the consumer review site, a discount promo mailer for pet products from chewy.com, a Handy.com home cleaning service piece that leverages its social media reviews in print, and a very small direct mail piece by Airbnb for simple and direct vacation property  recruiting.

To take a look at the mail pieces, go to http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/post/5-good-things-digital-mail/