With so many channels available to marketers, it may be tempting to dismiss direct mail as outdated or too expensive to drive response. “Print is dead,” the conventional wisdom says, because we live in a digital age, where customers are merely a click or smartphone tap away.

Statistics from the Data and Marketing Association (DMA), however, tell another story. According to its latest “Response Rate Report,” direct mail has a response rate of 5.1%, compared to 0.6% for email, 0.6% for paid search, 0.4% for social media, and 0.2% for online display.