Few companies have made more money online than Amazon.

And, yet, this arrived in my mailbox last week:

Yes, that’s a print catalog of “Holiday Kids Gifts.”

A paper catalog. Snail-mailed to my home. By THE premier online retailer of the last two decades.

The same guys who have my email address, cell number, and credit card info on file.

The same guys whose website I visit pretty much weekly, and who could reach me online as easily as breathing… decided to send me a print catalog.

So what do they know about print and direct mail advertising that you don’t?

Well, here’s a fun fact you might not know…

How long does the average mailer stay in a customer’s home before it’s thrown away?

Ready?

A month.

And that’s not a guess. That’s the latest research from Dr. Karen Nelson-Field, globally-recognized expert on the impact of attention on advertising performance, and trusted advisor to Google, Facebook, Snapchat, and OMD.

According to her research, on average, commercial mail stays in a customer’s home for thirty days before being thrown out.

Decades ago, Americans used to sort their mail over a trash can, ever ready to throw “junk mail” in the bin… but those days are gone.

That’s why so many digital companies — the kings of A/B testing and tracking results — are going offline to advertise.

And what does Dr. Karen Nelson-Field have to say about most online advertising?

In short, she says:

“Served vs Seen is advertisingʼs biggest sleight of hand.”

— Dr. Karen-Field

In other words, 83% of online ads that are technically “served” up to viewers, are never actually seen by customers for 2 seconds or more — the bare minimum of time to work!

She further outlines in the chart above how over-investing in digital advertising limits long-term growth — precisely because of the format’s inability to meaningfully gain and hold customer attention.

This is why digital experts are increasingly turning to offline advertising.

And it’s not just Amazon or other giants. Here’s legendary marketing expert, Mark Ritson, writing about a smaller, but growing e-commerce company a few years ago:

“I met a couple of brilliant young D2C (direct to consumer) millennials last year who waxed so lyrically about the power of radio, I was visibly taken aback. When I queried why a couple of smart but sockless wonders would throw perfectly good Instagram money away on radio, they explained that their extensive data had shown them that their purchase funnel was increasingly sparse up top. Their digital expertise was still converting brilliantly down the bottom, but they needed more new customers and traffic to their online site in order to keep growing. And radio was doing the top-of-funnel business.”

Those were e-commerce business owners and digital marketing experts waxing poetic about how well their offline radio ads were working for lead generation.

So here’s the thing: everyone tends to judge the rest of the world by their personal experience.

  • If you don’t bother reading junk mail, neither does anyone else.
  • If you don’t listen to the radio, neither does anyone else.
  • If you spend all your time online, so must everyone else.

But you are NOT “everyone else.” You are NOT your customer.

Recognizing that is truly the first step to great marketing.

You can’t go by your habits, preferences, and prejudices. You have to look at the data.

And what the data will tell you — if you bother to look — is that there’s a big opportunity in the right offline media.

Which is exactly why the data-junkies of online superstardom are turning to it.

So if you’re a business owner whose digital advertising efforts just aren’t working to feed the beast like they used to…

Reach out and let’s talk about how offline media might be just the fix.

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