2014 tech trends that bode well for direct mail marketers
In 1997, the United States Census Bureau confirms, only 18 percent of households had access to the Internet, and at the time "logging on" meant sitting at home in front of a desktop with a now unfathomably slow dial​-up connection. Now checking email and surfing Facebook is as easy as reaching into one's pocket and pulling out a smartphone. The explosion of technology has been more encompassing than anyone could have ever imagined, with almost every electronic gadget now featuring some sort of link to the wider Web. The release of Ford's annual consumer technology trend report, "Looking Further with Ford 2014," suggests the tight grip technology has had over consumers throughout the last decade could be loosening over the next year, paving the way for more traditional mediums like direct mail to capitalize.
Trend 1: Tech relationships reevaluated
When the Internet made the leap from stationary to mobile devices, it put itself in a position to encroach upon every second of an individual's life. Walking to work? Checking emails. Watching TV? Surfing Facebook on a laptop. Where technology was once a feature of personal abodes and professional offices, it has since become a fixture of the everyday world. But this saturation of screens and keypads has consumers questioning their devotion to devices. Research from Ford suggests 2014 will be the year in which consumers start to balance their digital obsessions with more off-the-grid appreciations. This opens the door for marketers to begin targeting more online customers with direct mail.
Trend 2: Let's get back to the good ol' days
It's a phrase heard in politics all the time: "the good ol' days." What those days are actually referring to is a bit ambiguous, but Ford has found customers are beginning to share the ill-defined sentiment. Researchers identified trends of consumers harkening back to times past, romanticizing how things used to be and appreciating the nostalgia. Marketers can use direct mail to remind consumers of a time before technology when information was delivered via the post office - not the soon-to-be-obsolete tablet they just bought.
In 2014, Ford expects customers to recede from their lives online and get back to more simple living. Customers are going to be looking for more intimate relationships with businesses, hoping to find products and services with real identity and meaning. Companies can use direct mail to foster those relationships with tangible materials that appeal to all senses, and investing in mailing software is the perfect way to ensure postal operations are effective and efficient.