Addressing the Digital Attribution Gap: Why Direct Mail is Driving More Sales Than You Think

A 2024 Clipper Readership Study recently quantified how consumers interact with print advertising, revealing specific behaviours that lead to the inefficiencies of direct attribution. This data strongly suggests that direct mail campaigns are driving significant online action that often goes uncredited.

The Direct Mail Ripple Effect

The study confirms that attribution loss to digital and other channels continues to increase. When consumers see a compelling offer in a direct mail piece, they often shift immediately to online tools, making it nearly impossible to attribute the final sale back to the original print piece.

If a consumer is interested in a product or service advertised in their direct mail and is looking for further information, the specific actions leading to attribution challenges are stark:

• A dominant 60% would use their browser to search or go directly to the advertiser’s website for more information.

In contrast, methods designed for direct tracking are significantly less utilized:

• Just 15% would visit the specific website extension or unique URL listed on the advertising.
• Only 10% would scan a QR code.
• A mere 4% would call the phone number listed on the advertising.

These findings expose a critical tracking gap. Direct mail successfully drives online traffic, yet traditional measurement tools fail to capture this offline-to-online influence. For direct mail campaigns specifically, tracking suffers when consumers take indirect paths: going straight to search, visiting the website directly, using an alternative online offer, or purchasing without the original coupon.

Solving the Attribution Puzzle: DRMG Insight Platform

As this research shows, direct mail influences online searches, with 47% of consumers reporting that direct mail guides them to search online for advertised businesses or products. In fact, 32% of respondents have purchased from a website as a result of receiving advertising in the mail during the past six months.

To accurately capture this hidden conversion volume, businesses must adopt advanced measurement techniques. Sometimes correlation does equal causation, meaning the action driven by the direct mail piece must be quantified, even if the final transaction occurred digitally.

The Clipper study itself emphasizes that lift analysis is imperative to account for attribution loss, which aligns with the goal of measuring the campaign's full impact.

To bridge this gap and properly credit direct mail for the digital lift it creates, DRMG Insight is a crucial tool to leverage. Insight focuses on connecting the physical mail drop to subsequent online behaviour via GA4 pixels and QR code tracking. DRMG Insight is a proprietary measurement platform designed specifically to solve the direct mail attribution problem. It functions by seamlessly integrating the physical distribution of direct mail campaigns with sophisticated digital tracking mechanisms, primarily through the use of GA4 pixels, monitoring event activity and unique, trackable QR codes. This platform provides advertisers with the essential capability to perform advanced lift analysis, accurately quantifying the increase in website traffic, search activity, and ultimately, sales that occurs only when a direct mail piece has been delivered. By connecting the mail drop date to subsequent online behaviour, DRMG Insight moves beyond simple click-through rates, offering a comprehensive view of how direct mail initiates the consumer journey and drives digital conversions, thereby ensuring campaigns receive their full, deserved credit.

DRMG has been at the forefront of the direct mail industry in Canada for over 22 years, helping more than 15,000 customers successfully grow their businesses. As the Canadian leader in direct mail solutions, we possess the unmatched expertise and innovative tools, like DRMG Insight, necessary to accurately measure and maximize your campaign's impact & understand attribution. Don't let the digital attribution gap undervalue your marketing investment; contact us today to begin designing a data-driven direct mail strategy that delivers verifiable results.