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FREE PREMIUM ARTICLE: Why SME owners must use Door Drops in their marketing mix

Ian Gibbs, Director of Insight at the DMA, discusses the latest opportunities to SME owners when using the Door Drop channel

A difficult environment for the economy invariably means a challenging environment for marketing budgets. Yet, despite a largely unpredictable year for businesses, the UK Door Drop industry continues to offer fresh opportunities.

Not only has the Door Drop channel had to deal with these cyclical market factors, such as rising inflation and cost-of living, but at the same time it has also undergone the structural challenges of a continued shift of budgets towards digital channels.

There are several important trends which have emerged over recent years which highlight where the opportunities lie within this tactile channel, as stated in our recently published Door Drop Report 2023 by the Data & Marketing Association (DMA UK) and JICMAIL.

Despite high inflation, rising cost of living, and multi-sector strike action, annual expenditure by businesses on Door Drops has remained virtually flat year-on-year, reaching a level of £181.2m (vs £182.3m in 2021). Door Drop volumes also held up relatively well at a level of 3.53 billion (vs 3.54 billion in 2021).

Consumers engage with them

A key thing to note is that Door Drops as a channel in 2022 was not just resilient - it continues to display improved levels of efficiency and effectiveness. As of Q4 2022, the average Door Drop was shared with 1.05 people per household (a metric referred to as Item Reach), reflecting an additional 5% audience reach on top of campaign volumes. In addition, the average person in the UK interacts with each Door Drop 3.1 times a month.

As the chart above displays, the average time spent reading a Door Drop by consumers across 28 days is 46 seconds. And this equates to £0.07 per minute of attention: the best result, matched only by Out of Home.

In an era when human interaction with brands can no longer be assumed, and ad avoidance is pervasive, the ability of the Door Drop channel to demonstrate that the channel holds consumer attention – alongside the effectiveness and efficiency metrics outlined earlier is invaluable.

Appeals to multiple audiences

Younger audiences continue to present additional targeting opportunities for advertisers in the mail channel.

While all age groups measured have seen their Door Drop engagement increase since 2018, the under 35 category has overtaken the other two age cohorts and - despite those aged 55+ narrowing the gap during 2022 – they remain the most engaged age group overall.

Door Drop frequency by household co-ordinator age

The growing use of the Door Drop channel among multiple, diverse sectors is indicative of it offering flexibility and effectiveness – even in an era dominated by digital advertising.

The chart below provides a perspective on the key advertiser sectors responsible for Door Drop volumes. Roughly the same number of sectors have seen volumes increase this year compared to last year, with some larger sectors experiencing modest double-digit growth (e.g. supermarkets were around +10%) and others with smaller increases, but plenty of opportunity to grow volumes (such as local and national tradespersons).

The days of major Door Drop-using brands distributing hundreds of millions of them every year may be gone, but the client base using the medium is now much bigger and more widespread. The supermarket, retail, tradesperson, and charity sectors have particularly sustained volumes.

Door Drop advertiser sector growth (2022)

A consistent channel

It is encouraging to see the channel continuing to perform strongly. With issues around paper prices, industrial action, and instability in government behind us, we are increasingly hopeful of seeing more businesses taking advantage of Door Drop performance this year – something for the SME community to consider.

The scale and unpredictable nature of global events in recent years has shown us that predictions are difficult, but if projections for inflation to fall into 2024 are accurate, then we could see even more encouraging metrics next year.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by The Data & Marketing Association .