Lowered Postal Rates Mean Now is the Best
Time to Give Direct Mail a Try
To say that most
small businesses have something of a love/hate relationship with the United
States Postal Service is an understatement. USPS is one of those necessary
things to get a wide range of direct and print mail marketing materials out
into the world. With a decade of increasing prices chipping away at return
on investment little by little, it's no wonder many organizations started
to skimp on direct mail spending in favor of other "cheaper"
solutions in the interim. Now, however, the tides may be truly changing as
postal rates are on the decline with no clear end in sight. If you've been
waiting to jump back into the direct mail world, now might be the PERFECT
time to give it a try for a number of reasons.
Postal Rates: What is Going On?
On April 10, 2016, the cost to ship a first-class letter in the United
States fell to just $0.47 - a rare phenomenon in recent memory.
Additionally, the price of sending a postcard dropped a penny,
international letters fell $0.05, and even coveted "Forever
Stamps" saw a decrease in cost at the same time. These are the most
direct mail and small business-friendly prices to come along since the
beginning of the 2008 recession.
Direct Mail Doesn't Just Work - It Works Gangbusters
Despite all this, some people still refuse to give direct mail the chance
it deserves because they naturally assume that digital marketing is more
efficient in the tech-driven world in which we now live. After all, with
people glued to their cell phones day in and day out, how much of an impact
can direct mail really have?
The answer is "a great big one."
According to a study conducted by Compu-Mail.com, direct mail is still used
heavily in an iPhone and Droid-centric world: approximately 43% of all
local retail advertising still falls into this category. Not only that, but
young adults are actually the largest group to respond to direct mail the
most, particularly among the millennial crowd. According to a recent International
Communications Research survey, approximately 73% of consumers actually
prefer direct mail over alternative advertising methods. This is largely
due to the fact that an equal number of respondents said that direct mail
marketing was a much more personable experience than internet-based
materials. Keep in mind that millennials think junk mail happens in their
inbox, not their mailbox.
So, if the reasons why you had overlooked direct mail in the past were
because "it was too expensive" and "you didn't think it
worked," congratulations: those two reasons just evaporated in an
instant.
No two businesses are created in quite the same way, and what works for one
might not work for another - especially in terms of an overall marketing
strategy. However, with the recent decline of USPS postal rates, now would
be the absolute perfect time to give direct mail a try if it's something
that you've flirted with in the past, but ultimately overlooked for
whatever reason. Now, is a terrific chance to really dip your proverbial
toe in the water and to see just how direct mail can benefit your
organization, especially if you're doing so for the first time. These
declining rates most likely aren't going to stick around forever, so go for
it, and create your direct mail campaign today.
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