Email is fast, inexpensive, and easy to send. For businesses communicating with existing customers and subscribers, it can be a valuable part of the marketing mix. But it also has its limitations: you’re competing with everything else in a customer’s inbox, and you’re limited to only people who know you and have opted in to receive your emails.
When running a local promotion, you need to reach people nearby and give them a reason to visit, call, book, or buy. This often means new contacts you’ve never had communication with before.
Direct mail gives you another way in by putting a relevant offer directly into households within the market your business serves. That’s why direct mail is often more effective for local promotions than email marketing is. The data shows that customers pay attention to what’s in their mailbox.
While it’s true that email may “cost” less once you already have the software in place, the ROI you typically see on email is significantly lower than direct mail.
According to the ANA Response Rate Report, direct mail sent to house lists delivers a 161% ROI, compared with 44% for email.1
That's an important distinction when evaluating a local promotion. Spending less on a campaign isn't necessarily a win if the campaign doesn't generate enough response to justify the investment.
For local businesses, the goal is to turn that marketing spend into something tangible: a store visit, appointment, purchase, coupon redemption, or other action. That tangible action shows immediate ROI.
If someone has subscribed to your emails, joined your loyalty program, made a purchase, or otherwise shared their contact information, you have a way to continue the conversation. But what about the potential customers who live only a few blocks away and have never interacted with your business?
Direct mail doesn't require an existing email list to reach them. Instead, you can build an audience using factors such as geography, demographics, consumer characteristics, and behaviors.
That allows you to focus your marketing dollars on people who make sense for the promotion, while also reaching new potential customers.
Related Content: Localizing Franchise Marketing With Shared Mail
Think about what your promotional email is competing against: work communications, receipts, newsletters, shipping notifications, promotions, spam. Your offer may be relevant to the recipient, but it still has to earn attention in a crowded environment.
Physical mail creates a different interaction. According to the USPS Household Diary Study, advertising accounts for 60% of household mail, and 59% of advertising mail is read.2
That matters because a promotion can't influence a purchase if the customer never notices it. A well-targeted mail piece gives your offer a physical presence in the household, whether the recipient responds immediately or encounters it again later.
There's also a lingering assumption that physical mail is primarily effective with older audiences, which means that email “should” be the default for communicating with a younger demographic.
The numbers don't support it. Research from Lob found that 85% of Gen Z and Millennials engage with direct mail.3
That doesn't mean every younger consumer prefers mail to digital, nor does it mean age should determine your marketing channel. But it does mean marketers shouldn't dismiss direct mail simply because they're trying to reach a younger audience.
Your targeting should start with the people most likely to respond to the promotion. Their location, needs, interests, behaviors, and relationship with your business may tell you much more than age alone.
Direct mail and local promotions are also a natural pairing because a physical piece gives you room to make the value of your offer immediately clear.
That might be:
Those offers may be especially relevant in 2026. Deloitte research found that 47% of consumers are deliberate deal-seekers, including 35% of high earners.4
When customers are actively looking for value, the promotion itself matters just as much as the channel carrying it. A direct mail piece can bring the offer, expiration date, nearest location, and next step together in one place.
None of this means you should abandon email or digital marketing. If you already have a strong customer email list, use it. Email can be an efficient way to stay connected with people who have already raised their hands and said they want to hear from you.
Direct mail can help you reach beyond that audience. It can also help bring people into your digital channels. A postcard or shared mail piece can use a QR code or URL to send recipients to an offer, appointment page, online ordering platform, event registration, or other digital destination.
Direct mail campaigns can also be paired with digital advertising so the same audience has more opportunities to encounter your promotion online. Rather than asking print and digital to compete, you can give each channel a role in moving the customer toward the same action.
Related Content: How to Retarget Households After a Direct Mail Drop
Email can help you reach the customers already in your database. Direct mail can help you reach the households around your business that you haven't connected with yet.
Mailbox Merchants helps businesses plan and manage direct mail marketing campaigns built around their audience, market, goals, and budget. From audience targeting and campaign strategy to creative, printing, postage, distribution, and digital advertising, we can help you turn a local promotion into a coordinated campaign designed to generate results.
Ready to reach more customers in your market? Talk to Mailbox Merchants about your next direct mail campaign.
Mailbox Merchants is the Northwest’s largest independently owned direct mail, multi-channel and digital marketing provider for local businesses. We marry the old and the new by tapping into the perpetual power of print media and using technology to strategically segment, target behaviors, and optimize performance through measurable marketing results.
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