The case for the mailbox
Everyone moved their budget online. That is exactly why mail works.
Direct mail is not nostalgia. It is a measured channel with published benchmarks, and those benchmarks have held up while digital costs climbed. Here is the data, with the sources.
84%
Read their mail the same day
Not eventually. The same day it lands. No email campaign, paid search ad or social post gets that kind of attention on arrival.
Source: Lob, State of Direct Mail: Consumer Insights, 2025
161%
ROI on direct mail to a house list
The highest return of any paid marketing channel the ANA measures — ahead of paid search, display and social.
Source: ANA Response Rate Report, 2023
112%
Median ROI across all direct mail
Even taken as a whole, direct mail returns more than paid search (93%) and online display (89%) on the same measure.
Source: ANA Response Rate Report, via Printing Impressions, 2024
5.7%
Response rate for postcards
Postcards out-respond letter-sized envelopes (4.3%), and oversized pieces stand out further still in a box of standard mail.
Source: ANA Response Rate Report, 2025
Put it next to what you are spending now.
Same benchmark study, every major channel measured the same way. Direct mail returns more per dollar than paid search and display, and it is not close on response.
| Channel | Response rate | Median ROI |
|---|---|---|
| Direct mail | 4–5% | 112% |
| Paid search | ~2% | 93% |
| Online display | <1% | 89% |
| ~1% | — | |
| Social media | <1% | — |
Source: ANA Response Rate Report, reported by Printing Impressions, 2024. Dashes indicate ROI not separately reported for that channel.
Four reasons this beats another $2,000 in search ads.
01
It arrives when digital does not
A homeowner does not search for a plumber until the pipe bursts. Search ads only catch people already looking. A card that lives on the counter or the fridge is there on the day the need appears — which is why home service businesses see calls arrive weeks after a mailing lands.
02
The mailbox has far less competition than the inbox
The average household receives a handful of advertising mail pieces a day, against hundreds of emails and thousands of digital impressions. Less noise per piece means more attention per piece, and that gap has widened every year as marketing budgets moved online.
03
Shared cards make the economics work for small trades
A solo mailing to 5,000 homes costs thousands in postage, printing and design before a single call comes in. Splitting one oversized card between non-competing businesses puts a full-route mailing within reach of a two-truck operation.
04
Category exclusivity means the card works for you, not against you
On a shared card packed with three plumbers, you are just a price comparison. We sell one business per industry per card, so when a homeowner needs your trade, there is exactly one number to call.
A note on the numbers
Industry averages describe the channel, not your campaign. Response depends on your offer, your market and your follow-up. We publish sources so you can read them yourself rather than take a marketing claim on faith — and we would rather set an honest expectation up front than oversell a number.
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