Study Calculates Cost of Poorly Targeted B-to-B Mail

The average businessperson receives more than 2,000 mail solicitations a year, and a good chunk of that is either addressed to a former employee or irrelevant, according to a new study.

Even potentially useful or desired solicitations are usually tossed if not directed at a current employee. Sixty-one percent of mail addressed to former workers is tossed. Another 15% is returned to the sender. Only 18% is recycled. These aren’t insignificant amounts of trash: The average businessperson receives 25 such mailings per month.

For what the study calls junk mail, (direct mail that reaches the individual to whom it is addressed, but is irrelevant), only 5% is returned to sender. Eighty-six percent is trashed without being opened.

The amount of poorly targeted mail sent to people at their business varies by the industry of the sender. Promotional gifts, retail mailings and publisher offerings were among the worst offenders, while marketers offering business services, financial services and corporate events tended to be the most careful with their lists.

Mailers soliciting within the United States are better at targeting than their global brethren: While worldwide, the average businessperson receives 2,400 pieces of unwanted mail per year, the average U.S. businessperson receives only 1,500.

The study — a telephone survey of 800 companies throughout the world — was conducted by QAS, an Experian company.