Touch is the very first way we communicate with the world as a child. The sense of touch remains essential to the way we receive and transmit information. It is one of the most important ways we experience the world we live in.

It goes without saying that the pandemic has impacted every one of us and the way we communicate. What do we do when the world as we know it is momentarily void of touch?

Touch creates a level of emotion that digital communications just can’t and never will match. That’s why the moments of touch are cherished so much more than the Zoom get-together we just had.

In a time of social distancing, businesses can use the texture in paper to help bring back some of the human connection that social media, blogs, and websites can’t replicate. Just to let you know, there is a lot that paper can do.

Businesses can use direct mail. It works for a wide range of reasons, but in these strange times, it adds an extra layer of comfort and connection while we’re avoiding seeing people, going places, and touching, well, anything.

A Sappi Paper sponsored study in 2020, assessing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on direct mail, found 65% of consumers agreed that receiving mail lifts their spirits, and the general population ranks printed materials favorably compared to social media, blogs, and websites for communications.

There are elements of paper and direct mail that have always and will continue to reign, no matter what is happening in our lives. David Sax, a popular science author, wrote a piece in Sappi’s Reach Out and Touch book on haptics (the science of touch), and in it, he muses about how analog touch is coming back in the age of connection. People are going back to the power of a touch, from board games, cassette tapes (yes, cassette tapes), printed books, or vinyl records.

 As marketers in the business of reaching and connecting to people, we need to use the power of touch in a direct mail piece. Don’t be out of touch, keep in touch with your customers and prospects.