The study from the Direct Mail Information Service found that in addition to charities, the top response rates came from automotive campaigns at 13.4% and pharmaceutical campaigns at 12.8%. Leonora Corden, head of market development at Royal Mail, said that the decreasing cost of digital printing has lead to greater personalisation of mailings, which in turn has lead to increased response rates and greater return on investment.

The DMIS research also found that charities invested £691.23 million in direct mail activity in the last quarter of 2005, up 2.4% on the same quarter in 2004. The number of mailshots also increased, from 1,228 million items to 1,237 million.