So much for the myth that most direct mail goes straight in the bin!

Only 4% of direct mail is trashed without opening

One of the startling statistics to emerge from some ground-breaking research by the Royal Mail is that only 4% of mail is trashed without opening it, whereas 72% is immediately opened, looked at and even read. The rest is saved for later.

Furthermore, 40% of all mail received by the average household is still hanging around 4 weeks later. It might be filed away, pinned to the noticeboard, in a heap on the sideboard, or just generally lying around. But it's still there.

My personal experience mirrors the research and I wonder what those who work with direct mail need to do to challenge the myth. Those marketers that prefer to use email because "most direct mail goes straight in the bin", perhaps need to reconsider...