State of Direct Mail 2025
Consumer
Insights Edition
Letter from the CEO
The best marketing doesn’t just reach people – it resonates. It earns attention. It makes someone stop, think, and act. In a world where everything is digital, automated, and easy to ignore, we’re seeing something unexpected: a return to what feels real.
This year’s State of Direct Mail Consumer Insights report makes it clear – direct mail isn’t a legacy tactic. It’s a modern, results-driven channel that cuts through the noise and builds real trust. 85% of Gen Z and Millennials engage with direct mail, a sharp contrast to older generations. But they’re not responding to the same old postcards. Today’s consumers expect mail to feel personal, tied to who they are, what they care about, and how they interact with your brand across every touchpoint.
We hope this report helps you rethink what mail can do and how powerful it can be when it’s crafted with intention and built for the way people engage today.
Ryan Ferrier
CEO, Lob
Study Methodology
Lob conducted this study in partnership with Kelsey White and PureSpectrum. The online survey was completed between April and May 2025 with 2,000 adult consumers across the United States, nationally representative of age, gender, income, and region.
Key takeaways
Younger generations are leading the direct mail renaissance.
85% of Gen Z and Millennials engage with direct mail – a significant increase from Gen Xers or Boomer generations.
Real-time engagement is rising.
84% of consumers read direct mail immediately or the same day they receive it – up from 70% last year.
Irrelevance is the #1 reason mail fails.
But, when relevance is done right – with the right timing and personalization – 67% of consumers say it’s what drives them to take action.
Mail is both a retention driver and a loyalty nudge.
81% say they’re more likely to re-engage with a brand after receiving a direct mail piece.
Direct mail builds trust.
49% of consumers view brands that send mail as more credible than those that don’t – and 44% say it feels more authentic or trustworthy than digital.
Offer, relevance and brand recognition drive conversion.
52% act on a compelling offer, 44% on a relevant message, and 42% when the brand is already familiar.
Direct mail breaks through where digital can’t.
58% of consumers feel overwhelmed by digital brand messages, while 53% say direct mail feels more special, valuable, or exclusive. Mail stands out not by being louder, but by being different.
High-income consumers are high-conversion and high-expectation.
Consumers earning $100K+ are more likely to convert from mail, but are also more sensitive to poor targeting and volume.
Chapter 1: Generational Differences
Younger consumers are meeting brands at the mailbox.
Forget the idea that only older consumers care about physical mail. Millennials and Gen Z aren’t just reading it – they’re acting on it and sharing it more than any other generation. 85% of Millennials and Gen Z have taken action from a mail piece, with 67% making a purchase or signing up for a service. For them, mail feels personal, credible, and worth paying attention to.
What sets them apart isn’t just their enthusiasm, it’s their expectations. They want direct mail to be relevant, modern, and easy to act on.
When you receive direct mail from a brand, what do you typically do with it?
How often do you share direct mail pieces or offers with your friends or family?
Have you ever made a purchase, signed up for a service, or become a patient or customer of a business as a result of direct mail?
Consumer spotlight
“Receiving mail with my name on it catches my attention and quite honestly, it feels more personal and intentional.”
Chapter 2: How consumers react to direct mail
Mail sparks engagement the moment it lands.
Direct mail earns something few channels do: immediate attention. 84% of consumers say they read direct mail the same day they receive it, up from 70% in 2024. 86% say they genuinely like receiving it. And 81% report taking some kind of action after receiving a piece of mail, up sharply from 60% last year.
What do you like about receiving direct mail from brands?
Consumer spotlight
“I love having something tangible to review at leisure. Direct mail puts me in control. A substantial offer or discount would definitely take me to the website to see if it's worth it.”
“I love the fact that I can get more detail without having to go to another mode of communication and I can keep it for future reference.”
“It feels more personable than receiving it over my email or text message.
If I get an email or text like that I automatically think of it as spam/junk mail. When I receive mail physically it is more important to me rather than junk mail which makes me open it immediately and actually read the information.”
What lands direct mail in the recycling bin
Not all mail makes it past the first glance. When direct mail feels irrelevant, intrusive, or inauthentic, it’s more likely to end up in the recycling bin than in consumer hands.
Would any of the following possible characteristics of direct mail turn you off?
IMPERSONAL
Design & Content
Wrong personalization
Other
Direct mail design and format play a role
Design also plays a role in conversion. 47% say a unique shape and design influenced them to take action.
Which of the following formats of direct mail are you most likely to read?
Chapter 3: Direct vs. digital
Direct mail outperforms digital on trust and recall.
Consumers may be inundated with digital brand messages, but they don’t feel the same way about mail. Instead, they describe direct mail as memorable, thoughtful, even special. While nearly 60% say they feel digitally overloaded, mail stands out with words like “real, valuable, and worth keeping.”
That emotional connection pays off. Nearly half of consumers, and 53% of high-income earners, say brands that send direct mail feel more credible, especially in trust-driven industries like healthcare and financial services.
And while digital might be faster, mail is more memorable: 56% of consumers say they remember brands better from mail than from digital touchpoints.
Consumer spotlight
“I like the idea of tangible things; our society is too inundated with digital everything.”
How much do you agree or disagree with each of the following statements?
Consumer spotlight
“With everything being digital these days it makes you feel you matter to get it in the mail.”
Omnichannel strategies still reign supreme.
At the end of the day it’s not direct or digital. It’s the combination of channels that makes the most impact.
How much do you agree or disagree with each of the following statements?
Email leads the way as the channel most tightly integrated with direct mail.
Chapter 4: What Converts
Consumers act when mail feels useful.
Every year, more consumers move from reading mail to taking meaningful action. 81% say they’ve followed up after receiving a piece of direct mail, up from 60% in 2024. And 62% say they’ve actually converted, such as making a purchase or signing up for a service.
What drives those actions? Offers and discounts are the top motivators, followed by message relevancy and brand familiarity.
And when consumers do engage, 76% are using a digital channel to do so.
Which of the following actions have you ever taken after receiving a piece of direct mail?
Thinking of times you’ve taken action after receiving direct mail, which of the following elements of the direct mail piece influenced you to take action?
Which of the following ways of getting more information on a brand or product, would you be most likely to use?
Who are the converts?
62% of consumers have made a purchase, signed up for a service, or become a patient or customer of a business as a result of direct mail. Who are they?
The consumers most likely to convert skew Millennial and male, with incomes above $100k. Affluent consumers have the highest conversion rate at 69%. Some of their typical behaviors include:
- Reading direct mail immediately upon receiving
- Keeping direct mail longer than a day
- Sharing direct mail with others
- Preferring QR codes
Those who convert from direct mail particularly like:
- The physical nature of it
- That it shows the brand made an effort
- How it stands out from the clutter of digital ads
- Makes brands seem more trustworthy
Chapter 5: Personalization and targeting
Irrelevance is the #1 reason mail fails – and the most fixable.
72% of consumers throw out mail that feels irrelevant to them. But, making mail relevant isn't just about printing their name at the top, it's about getting the offer, timing, and tone right.
When done well, personalization makes an impression. 52% say they’re more likely to engage when mail feels tailored to them, and 67% say a personalized detail led them to take action.
What prompted Action
Personalization drivers
When consumers engage
“When it is more personalized to me and clearly has information about some service I have been meaning to get started on.”
“A personalized letter, which is truly personalized, rather than a form letter with my name filled in.”
Chapter 6: Direct + Digital
Direct mail sets the stage for digital.
Mail kicks off a multi-channel journey, from mailbox to mobile to moment of decision. In fact, 41% of consumers say they’re more likely to engage when they receive both mail and digital touchpoints together. It nudges lapsed customers, drives first-time purchases, and plays especially well when paired with digital.
While direct mail is often considered most effective for reactivation, the data consistently shows it’s a reliable engine for action across every stage of the funnel.
Nearly half (49%) of consumers say direct mail is an important way for brands to build relationships with them.
Moments that matter
Acquisition
- 44% say receiving direct mail from an unknown brand increases the likelihood they’ll try that brand for the very first time
- 1 in 5 Millennials say direct mail significantly increases the likelihood they’ll do business with a brand
Reactivation
- 81% say direct mail would influence them to re-engage with a brand they haven’t purchased from or done business with recently
Amplification
- 41% of consumers say that when they receive a combination of digital communications (emails, texts, etc) and direct mail from a brand, they are more likely to engage with them
- 56% are more likely to remember brands from direct mail than digital alone
Survey Methodology
About the respondents
Direct mail has never been more powerful, but only if it’s smart, efficient, and integrated.
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