When I was little, I remember going through the catalogs sent to our home and earmarking pages that had items I wanted to put on my Christmas list. From a Barbie Jeep to a Sno-Cone machine, believe me when I say that I bookmarked anything that looked cool, even if I knew the odds weren’t likely with some of them. Seeing pictures of happy children playing with these gadgets and toys, or browsing through the latest American Girl fashions to determine which outfit would fit my Molly doll best, made me feel connected to the product in a way that writing out a plain list couldn’t provide. It also was probably incredibly efficient for my parents – after all, they had the name of the store, the exact item name, and the price all right in front of them.
Kids certainly have it different these days (I’m sure there’s an app out there to send a list to Santa), and consumers in general, plan for holiday shopping in mixed ways. Some of us have secret Pinterest boards, some of us will email product links to ourselves, some of us bookmark sites on our browsers, but a lot of us will still use catalogs. According to a study done by marketing agency Epsilon, 77% of consumers surveyed said that advertisements sent in the mail had at least some influence on their holiday shopping lists.
Still on the fence as to whether you should promote through direct mail this holiday season? Here are some additional facts for you to consider:
- In women ages 18-30, 45% said that catalogs sparked an interest in a retailer’s product. 90% of women in this range said that they bought items they first saw in a catalog.
- On average, a catalog will cost about a dollar to print and deliver, however, companies will see a $2 return on average for every prospective customer and $10 for every returning customer.
- Wait! There’s more great metrics regarding ROI: $47.61 worth of catalogs will land an order, compared to $99.47 landing an order through paid search advertising. Think email marketing is better? Think again – it requires around $53.85 to be spent.
- The most successful holiday direct mail pieces set the scene, inspire, and serve as a resource. Combining helpful content and engaging visuals is a win-win for holiday advertisements and catalogs. Although online ads may work in similar ways, print is certainly more successful at gaining multiple touches.
- Consumers spend about 25 minutes with their mail each day but spend even more time (30 minutes) with catalogs.
- 56% of customers say that they find print marketing to be the most trustworthy.
- We’ll state the obvious: The holidays are an exciting time. They bring about that heart-warming, cozy-up-by-the-fire kind of feeling. We are definitely more drawn to holiday advertisements because of the traditions and emotions they convey, and that certainly makes advertising this time of year a lot easier and effective.
Need some inspiration? Put on some flannel, pour a cup of hot chocolate, turn on the holiday jams and check out some of these creative holiday print ads or contact us to rack the brains of our Strategic Marketing Team.
