Name: Insight Data Ltd.
Address: Worle Park Way,, Weston-super-Mare,, BS22 6WA, UK
Telephone: 01934 808 293

Email vs Direct Mail Marketing in 2025: Which Works Best?

Email vs Direct Mail Marketing is a key consideration for B2B marketers in 2025. As marketing budgets tighten and competition increases, businesses are assessing which channel delivers better results. At Insight Data, we help clients in construction, fenestration, and the wider built environment get measurable ROI from both approaches.

Direct Mail Marketing: Physical, Personal, Proven

Direct mail has evolved. While it may appear traditional, recent studies show direct mail still delivers higher response rates in B2B campaigns compared to email alone. In fact, Royal Mail Marketreach reports an average 35% ROI for direct mail campaigns when used with clean, targeted data.

Advantages of direct mail in 2025:

Highly targeted: Mailshots to verified contacts from a GDPR-compliant database achieve stronger engagement.
Personalised: Printed material addressed to a named contact gets more attention than generic email greetings.
Credible: Physical collateral builds trust in sectors where purchase decisions are high value or long-term.
Memorable: Direct mail is retained longer and interacted with more often than digital-only messages.

Email Marketing: Fast, Measurable, Low Cost

Email Marketing Icon

Email marketing continues to be a cost-effective, high-volume tool for driving response. According to the Data & Marketing Association (DMA), email marketing returns £38 for every £1 spent when campaigns are well-targeted and timed.

Advantages of email marketing:

Lower cost: No printing or postage. Quick to deploy and scale to thousands of recipients.
Trackable: Campaigns can be measured in real time using open rate, click-through rate, and conversions.
Flexible: Can be personalised and segmented using real-time data from your CRM or database.
Fast response: Most responses arrive within 1–2 days of sending.

What Works Best: Email or Direct Mail?

The most successful marketing teams don’t choose between them—they combine them. Clients using both channels as part of an integrated campaign see stronger results. For example, sending a direct mail piece followed by a personalised email has been shown to increase conversion rates by over 20%.

Combining both channels ensures your message reaches the recipient in the format they prefer—and improves brand recall, credibility, and response.

How Insight Data Can Help

Insight Data provides GDPR-compliant marketing data and campaign services to help you reach architects, housebuilders, contractors, local builders, merchants and more.

Our services include: