Discussing the Trends and Predictions for Direct Mail in 2025
During a recent webinar hosted by Brad Kugler, CEO of DirectMail2.0 and Who's Mailing What!, a group of seasoned direct mail veterans got together to discuss the trends impacting the space right now — and what they anticipate for the coming year.
Kugler was joined by Ashley Roberts, content director of Printing Impressions; Morgan DiGiorgio, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Direct Mail 2.0 and Who’s Mailing What!; Dina Kessler, president and co-founder of Kessler Creative; and Mike Philie, principal of The Philie Group.
Unsurprisingly, USPS was one of the topics the group explored, with the fast pace of postage increases being a continuing pain point for many in the printing industry. Even though the USPS has said it won’t raise rates again in January, there are plans for a rate increase in July of 2025. The group also dove into the recent announcement that Royal Mail, the United Kingdom’s primary postage service, was just sold in its entirety to a private investor based in the Czech Republic. It poses the question: Will the USPS will eventually be taken private? The speakers touched on how that could impact service, especially to rural or hard-to-reach areas where it’s not profitable to offer service — something the USPS doesn’t consider, but a for-profit investor would.
Another major trend the group explored has been the explosion of consolidation in the past few years — and they don’t expect that to slow down any time soon, as printers look to improve efficiencies and reduce costs wherever they can.
Embellishments and personalization were another hot topic — and the group stressed that personalization is not the same thing as versioning, or even just placing a name on the campaign and calling it “personalized.” True personalization takes into account demographics, region, even the point in a buying cycle a specific customer is in to create a unique mailer for every recipient. As modern technologies, especially on the inkjet printing side, have evolved, that kind of deeply personal mail piece is not only achievable, but more cost effective.
Finally, the group explored the trend of omnichannel marketing, and stressed how critical mail is to that effort. Direct mail is often the cornerstone of an omnichannel campaign that seeks to touch consumers in all the places they engage. Some consumers, for example, will start their journey with an email or a newsletter, but it might be the direct mail component that finally gets them to convert. Or perhaps the direct mail is their first exposure to the campaign, but it intrigues them enough to go check out a website or scan a QR code. A true omnichannel campaign makes use of the best aspects of each component to craft a consistent message that gives consumers multiple entry points, and ensures they can choose to engage in whatever way they are most comfortable with.
Direct mail, like most segments of the printing industry, is changing rapidly right now, with the hardware and software constantly improving and offering new capabilities faster and cheaper; postal concerns impacting how much brands and print buyers are willing to invest in print components; and even things like AI impacting every element of the process from start to finish. Direct mail printers who want to stay ahead of the competition will need to make it a priority to stay informed — attending webinars like this one, getting the daily Printing Impressions newsletter, or attending events like Inkjet Summit or PRINTING United Expo — to ensure the rapid pace of innovation doesn’t pass you by and leave the door open for someone else to come in and capture your business for themselves.
Toni McQuilken is the senior editor for the printing and packaging group.
