Beyond the Letterbox: What JICMAIL’s Q2 2026 Data Tells Marketers About Mail

JICMAIL’s latest Q2 2026 results offer a useful snapshot of how mail influences consumer behaviour, highlighting some interesting shifts in how it drives both online and offline engagement.

For marketers, the most useful question is not simply whether mail is effective. It is what role mail plays within the wider customer journey.

The Q2 figures suggest that role can extend well beyond the initial delivery. Mail can generate repeated interactions, reach more than the original recipient, prompt a website visit and influence a purchase that ultimately takes place in-store. That makes it worth considering not as an isolated channel, but as a touchpoint that can connect different parts of a campaign.

Mail Can Have a Longer Life Than the Initial Interaction

One of the clearest findings in the Q2 data is the level of engagement generated by Direct Mail. The report shows an average of 4.4 interactions per Direct Mail item, with each item reaching an average of 1.14 people. Direct Mail also had a 7.4-day lifespan and generated 151 seconds of attention during Q2.

These figures show that the first interaction is not necessarily the only one. A piece of mail can remain in the home, be looked at again or be seen by somebody other than the person it was originally addressed to.

For marketers, this makes the physical experience of a campaign worth considering alongside the message itself. The format, creative and relevance of a piece of Direct Mail can all influence how people interact with it and whether it continues to have a role beyond that first interaction.

Mail Can Connect the Physical and Digital Journey

The latest results also show that physical mail can play a clear role in driving digital activity.

The report shows that 9.5% of all mail items prompted a website visit in Q2 2026. QR codes were particularly effective at creating a route from the physical communication into the digital environment. A Door Drop containing a QR code was 87% more likely than the average mail item to prompt a website visit, while a Direct Mail item containing a QR code was 60% more likely.

A physical communication can introduce a message, offer or proposition, while the digital destination provides somewhere for the recipient to continue the journey. The website can then offer more information, capture an enquiry, encourage a registration or support whatever action the campaign is designed to generate.

That means physical and digital channels do not have to compete with one another. They can perform different roles within the same campaign, with mail creating the initial interaction and digital channels providing the next step.

For marketers, the important consideration is whether those roles have been planned together. If mail is intended to drive online engagement, the route from the physical communication to the digital experience needs to be clear and easy to follow.

The Customer Journey Does Not Always End Online

One of the most interesting findings for marketers is where mail-driven purchases are actually taking place.

JICMAIL found that 6% of mail prompted a purchase in Q2 2026, compared with 5% in Q2 2025. More significantly, 41% of mail-driven purchases were transacted in-store, up from 34% a year earlier.

For businesses with physical locations, this is an important consideration. A customer might receive a piece of mail, become interested in an offer and then visit a store to make their purchase. The final transaction happens offline, even though the mail may have played a role earlier in the journey.

This is also a useful reminder that the customer journey does not always follow a straightforward online path. A campaign may begin with a physical communication and lead to an action elsewhere, depending on what the customer is being asked to do.

For marketers, understanding where the intended action takes place should therefore influence how a campaign is planned and measured.

Relevance Matters, and Location Can Be Part of That

The Q2 release also highlights the role of geographical targeting, particularly for physical retailers. JICMAIL points to mail’s ability to target specific catchment areas, deliver local service information and personalise offers according to geography.

Location can directly affect whether a message is relevant to someone. A local offer, for example, has a different value to somebody who lives within a realistic distance of the relevant store or service.

For marketers, this means audience targeting does not always need to stop at demographic or behavioural characteristics. Depending on the campaign, it can also be useful to consider:

• Where the audience lives
• Whether location affects the relevance of the proposition
• Which households fall within a particular catchment area
• Whether the creative or offer can be adapted to make the communication more locally relevant

Reaching the right audience is only part of the challenge. The communication also needs to make sense for the people receiving it.

What Should Marketers Take From the Latest Data?

The Q2 results provide a useful set of considerations for marketers planning future campaigns:

• Think about the whole customer journey. Mail does not necessarily need to deliver the final conversion itself. It can introduce a proposition, reinforce a message, encourage further research or influence a later action.
• Plan physical and digital activity together. If mail is intended to drive online engagement, make the next step clear. The QR code findings show the potential of creating a direct route from the physical communication to the website.
• Allow for offline behaviour. The increase in mail-driven purchases taking place in-store shows why customer journeys should not be viewed entirely through digital activity.
• Use data to make communications relevant. Audience selection, location and personalisation can all influence how appropriate a communication feels to the person receiving it.
• Look beyond the first response. With Direct Mail generating an average of 4.4 interactions and a 7.4-day lifespan, the initial interaction is not necessarily the end of the campaign’s influence.

Seeing Mail as a Super Touchpoint

The strongest message from JICMAIL’s Q2 2026 results is the range of activity taking place around a piece of mail.

Direct Mail generated multiple interactions and reached more than the original recipient. Mail prompted website visits, with QR codes providing a particularly strong connection to digital activity. At the same time, a significant proportion of mail-driven purchases took place in-store.

JICMAIL describes this wider role as that of a Super Touchpoint, particularly for physical retailers using mail to create experiences in-home, in-store and digitally.

For marketers, this provides a useful way of thinking about where mail fits into a wider campaign. Its role does not have to be limited to generating a direct response. It can be the physical touchpoint that starts a digital interaction, reinforces a decision, brings a customer into a store or contributes to an action that ultimately takes place somewhere else.

That is why the question is not simply whether direct mail should be part of a marketing plan. It is where it can add value within the customer journey, and how the other channels can build on that interaction.

For us, that wider view is central to how we approach direct mail. From data and targeting through to creative, print, physical distribution and digital integration, the most effective approach is to consider how each element contributes to the journey as a whole.

If you are considering where direct mail could fit within your existing marketing activity, speak to Citipost Mail about how it could work as part of your wider customer journey.

Source

JICMAIL, Q2 2026 Results: Political parties and supermarkets provide a boost to mail engagement and effectiveness, released 10 September 2026.

Read the official JICMAIL Q2 2026 results