If you are planning to do outreach to consumers who may be unfamiliar with your brand, be aware that they prefer to be contacted by traditional direct mail. As reported by Marketing Charts, in a recent survey of over 2,000 U.S. consumers age 18+, 44 percent of respondents prefer to receive direct mail from brands they do not know, while 35 percent prefer contact by email. Only 13 percent prefer social media messages and 8 percent prefer text messages. In contrast, 52 percent of consumers who have a relationship with a brand prefer to receive email contacts from the brand, versus direct mail (20 percent), text messages (19 percent) and social media messages (9 percent).
Over 70 percent of consumer respondents to the survey said when they receive direct mail, they read it immediately or the same day they receive it, and 62 percent said they have taken some sort of action after reading it.
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