It’s not unusual to hear me muttering under my breath each time I visit my mailbox. Receiving countless pieces of advertising junk mail, I have become immune to the countless offers that arrive uninvited.
So I have a hard question to ask my fellow marketers. Is direct mail really the best way to reach your audience? Or, do people think of it mostly as junk -- part of a propaganda game bought into by advertisers and perpetuated by the United States Postal Service to keep the system afloat?
According to a recent BusinessWeek cover story by Devon Leonard, The U.S. Postal Service Nears Collapse, “with the rise of e-mail and the decline of letters, mail volume is falling at a staggering rate, and the postal service's survival plan isn't reassuring. Elsewhere in the world, postal services are grappling with the same dilemma -- only most of them, in humbling contrast, are thriving.”
As the article explains, “European countries are on a viable course for the future while the US is not,” according to James I. Campbell Jr., a consultant in Potomac, Md., who advises foreign governments on postal policy issues.
For example, the article explains that some countries’ postal organizations have intelligently redesigned their mail infrastructure with an eye towards the future, allowing them to capitalize on the latest technologies. Case in point -- Sweden’s Posten has an app that customers can use to turn the digital photos on their cell phones into postcards. Posten is also unveiling a service that will allow cell-phone users to send letters without traditional postage for a specific charge by opting-in to receive a text message with a numerical code that they can jot down on envelopes in place of a stamp.
Similarly, as the article further illustrates, Swiss Post lets customers choose if they want their mail delivered at home in hard copy or scanned and sent to their preferred Internet-connected device. Customers can also tell Swiss Post if they would rather not receive items such as junk mail.
With the increasing popularity of SMS technology and mobile text marketing, people have become more and more accustomed to a heightened level of choice and personalization – and this phenomena is one of which marketers should be aware, even if the USPS has yet to acknowledge this fact.
In an age where digital communications and sensitivities to eco-friendliness are increasing, it seems that conducting a bulk mail campaign might just not be as effective as it once was.
That is unless you conduct a multi-channel marketing campaign that allows for cross-channel messaging. For example, what if you were to include an invitation for consumers to receive ongoing discounts from you simply by using the reader on their mobile phone to scan the Quick Response (QR) Code that you printed on the mailer? Then you might also find yourself increasing your mobile database as well as boosting response rates and sales – and at the same time reducing the number of mailers you’ll need to send out.
That might also smooth over things a bit for people like me who view each piece of paper that they toss in the recycle bin as a waste of time and energy. It might also provide greater ROI for an increasing number of my fellow marketers who are finding that text messaging services now offer a better way to reach their target markets.
In the past four years, we’ve entered a brave new world – one where companies of all sizes need to be cost-effective with their marketing dollars and highly targeted with every campaign that they launch.
This is good for people like me who hate junk mail but not such cheery news for the USPS. Since the onset of the recession, “total mail volume has plunged 20 percent from 2006 to 2010,” reports Leonard.
Smart organizations are realizing that consumers are increasingly using SMS text and their mobile phones as a key connector for every facet of their lives – whether that means paying the bills, keeping up to date with activities at their children’s school, receiving reminders about the next church function or sending important letters and other correspondence.
It’s these very same organizations who are also realizing that there really is value in conducting an integrated, multi-channel campaign. Using solutions like Trumpia’s All-In-One Multi-Channel Messaging and Marketing platform to conduct a highly orchestrated, synergistic campaign via SMS text, email, IM, social media channels and voice broadcast, marketers can keep pace with the type of interactions consumers have already come to expect from their friends, colleagues, work associates and communities.
If only the USPS would follow suit. Who knows, the world of junk mail just might reinvent itself.
