Region’s printing rebounds as direct mail soars

Print Ideas, a print broker, has seen an increase of 80 per cent in orders for direct mail and leaflets in December on the previous year.

Nick Wayne, a director at the Roundhay-based firm, said there is “a very strong move away from ecommunication”, as people are less likely to read an email and more likely to engage with a printed item.

“We had a huge rise in December up to 80 per cent on the previous year in door-to-door leaflet drops and direct mail,” Mr Wayne told The Yorkshire Post.

Mr Wayne said the reason for this was that many businesses were finding that their emails were either being spammed or deleted without being read. “They are now turning their attention to doing direct mail, door to door leaflet drops,” he added.

A similar trend has been reported by Leeds-based printer RNB Group, who are also seeing a resurgence in direct mail.

The firm, which employs 45 people, is celebrating its tenth anniversary and has also seen success in document management.

Alan Cruickshank, business development director at RNB Group, said: “We’ve had quite a lot of success in the document management sector. We are able to do things swifter, better managed and cheaper because we’ve got a lot of the services here.”

But the trend in direct mail seems to be headed towards a more personalised direction, with literature containing names of individuals and the content also tailored to their interests. Personalised, targeted printing is a specialism of the RNB group.

Citing figures from Marketing Week, Mr Wayne said: “Statistically, 87 per cent of consumers remember door drops and only 35 per cent remember emails.”

He adds: “The Royal Mail say that 51 per cent of adults think door-to-door drops are great for information on local services and events. If it’s something local then a door-to-door drop can be very effective, while an email can easily be deleted.

“Again the Royal Mail state that 23 per cent of people keep door-to-door drops somewhere safe for future use.”

But Mr Wayne said that there was a place for emails and that the skill to getting emails noticed was the copywriting within the subject box.

He said: “I’m not knocking emails because it’s all part of the marketing mix, there’s a place for email campaigns – it’s supportive of other activities.”

Technology continues to impact on print, but print is far from dead argues Mr Wayne.

He said: “The rumours that print is dead are completely unfounded. I think there will always be a place for print, look at the sale of Kindles, they’ve dropped dramatically and the sale of books has increased.

“Is there a move away from instant electronic entertainment and information to more traditional printed matter? I think there is and I hope there is for many years to come.”