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Fifty percent of U.S. consumers prefer direct mail to e-mail, as reported in a study released by Epsilon on December 1st. Fifty percent. That’s half of your members, customers, and prospects who PREFER direct mail to e-mail.

The same study found that:

• 25% of consumers found direct mail to be more trustworthy than e-mail.
• 60% said they enjoy checking their physical mailboxes.
• There is an “emotional connection” to postal mail.
• 75% of U.S. consumers say they get more email than they can read.

Interestingly, the survey points out that marketers are actually being hurt by an over-reliance on e-mail marketing. The survey quoted a decline in the perception that reading e-mail is faster than reading postal mail. According to Warren Storey, VP of Product Marketing and Insight at ICOM, a division of Epsilon Targeting, “There is definitely a growing trend that email inboxes are getting more and more full. Over the last three years, we’ve seen an increase in the percentage of consumers saying, yeah, they like getting email but they get far too many.”

According to the report, the ideal way to reach consumers is to use a combination of media including direct mail. This is not surprising to LKCS. We’ve been touting the benefits of multi-channel marketing campaigns for years. Use the new e-marketing tools to reach half of consumers who want to hear from you via e-mail, SMS, and social networks. And use traditional marketing methods such as direct mail, newspapers and TV to reach the other half.